According to Kireet Khurana of 2nz Animation Co., animated features do well due to their novelty and unique target audience in India.

SN: By 2010, many awesome animated films would have already hit the Indian market. UTV's Arjun, Alibaba, and my film The Dream Blanket. Many other studios are also making animated films. Hopefully these stories will start seeping into other cultures. Internationally, Indian animation will one day impact film, TV and the Web.

KK: Animated features are doing extremely well due to their novelty and [the fact that their] unique target audience in India, unlike Bollywood films, [is] children. India has a long way to go, though, in terms of quality animation production to reach international standards; however, the existing films are meant for Indian audiences and they seem to have the emotional connect required to be commercially viable and successful. It is too early to say whether Indian animation will make its mark in the international arena. Looking at existing realities, Bollywood has been the largest film industry in the world for decades. But because its content and quality benchmark has been more suited for Indian audiences, it has yet to make a mark in the world and impact cinema internationally. The same could be the case for Indian animated films, where filmmakers are currently catering to the local one billion-plus audience and not the international market, except for the Indian diaspora.

ASK: Indian animation in short- and long-form will soon get exposure, as there is an established domestic market for feature film and television content. The fast-growing penetration into the Web and mobile content will definitely lend a helping hand for Indian animation globally.

LG: What's your involvement with the animated feature industry?

KK: We are currently involved with India's largest animation project to date called Toonpur Ka Superhero (The Superhero of Toonland), a film that I am directing and [for which] my studio is doing the animation preproduction for our parent company Climb Media. Toonpur is India's first 3D and live-action combo feature film and it features Bollywood's top stars. We start shooting in mid-January. Currently, we are in the animation production stage. This film is budgeted at US$10 million. It is the most expensive animated film being made in India currently. We have a three-film deal with the producer of Toonpur. The other two films are in the scripting stages. We are lucky to have the largest Indian producers backing our project. They also happen to be among the top five distributors in the country and, coupled with the fact that the film features top Bollywood stars, distribution is not a problem. Distribution is next to impossible if you don't have Bollywood stars in your film.

Mighty Babies is a Flash animation feature Animation Dimensions is currently working on. © Animation Dimensions.

MS: Graphiti is working on two animated feature films. One of them is called Action Hero BC [working title]. It is the story of an ordinary teenager with an extraordinary resolve to fight selflessly against evil. The second feature we are producing is with Turner. This film is in the early development stage. I am the producer of these films.

SN: My company Epiphany Films is co-producing its first animated feature The Dream Blanket with UTV Motion Pictures. Our film is a Tibetan fairy tale with universal appeal. Animated features are the main focus of our business. The dream is to stick to animated features because we have many fantastic stories to tell.

EK: We have four animated films lined up, but currently we are working on a Flash animation feature called Mighty Babies. The other films are Bombay Dogs, The Sea Prince and Superstar Babies. Our business model focuses on both animated features, as well as animated TV shows.

ASK: AniRights Infomedia Pvt. Ltd is in the process of producing two feature films for the domestic market targeting Indian people. We have successfully set up the pipeline to produce these feature films and release them domestically and then for Indian people worldwide. AniRights is predominantly set up to create original content and to own IP through feature films as a primary module, and expand these properties into animated television shows eventually.

LG: What's unique about your film(s)?

KK: Personally, I feel the soul of our company lies in our storytelling ability. The fact that the company is not being run by marketing or management cadre individuals, but is being driven by creative minds, is another uniqueness that reflects in our work.

SN: It's my producer Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures, the story, and the team.

EK: The story and the treatment. It is mythology repackaged for the current generation in the present context. Also, for all our movie projects we are using writers with international experience and all our directors will also be from the U.S. or U.K., as we strongly feel that the talent in the western world is much better. We want to create entertainment with a lot of moral values that's loads of fun!

MS: If you look at successful animated films from Hollywood, several of them have taken niche tales from diverse cultures and given [them] the Hollywood gloss. Some examples are: The Lion King has a heavy African influence in its story and music, Shrek was inspired from a Czech folk story, and Mulan was inspired from Chinese folk tale. Graphiti is drawing inspiration from Indian folk stories, but at the same time we are consciously staying away from mythological stories based on Indian gods. Also the entire visual style that we have developed is truly unique and will appeal to a global, as well as the Indian, audience. Our approach to developing animated films is that we are using the Indian ethos as an exotic spice in the curry. If you add too much of it, it will spoil the curry and, with too little of it, there is no flavor.