Talent eludes 'desi' animation

Indian animation industry faces manpower crunch; experts blame lack of facilities

Though the Indian animation industry has made giant strides of late, it is still hampered by lack of skilled manpower, mainly due to lack of facilities and preference for traditional career options.

“At the close of next year, the industry will require at least 25,000 more trained hands to fill the gap and by the year 2012, the industry will have room to accommodate 3,00,000 professionals,” said Atul Vohra of Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC).

At present only a little over 10,000 professionals are working in this field.

“I would rather blame the parents and guardians of youngsters for this situation. Because, until recently, the elders in this country had a misconception that animation was all about drawing cartoon figures. So they felt there were no career prospects in this field. They never encouraged their wards to take up animation as a professional course,” Vohra pointed out.

There are now about 1,00,000 students undergoing training in animation, VFX and gaming in different parts of the country. When the first batch comes out next year, they may fill the gap to a certain extent, but the want of skilled professionals is still the bane for the development of the animation industry.