'AniMela will have an entire game developer zone', Kireet Khurana

Aniverse & Visual Arts Foundation (AVAF) is set to host AniMela, the epic four-day festival. The event will debut at NFDC, Films Division Compound, Peddar Road from 18^th-21^st Jan 2024. It will host films, workshops and activities promoting and showcasing Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, Comics & Extended Reality (AVGC-XR). In a interview with InsideSport, AniMela Festival Director, Kireet Khurana spills the beans on the festival’s electrifying game developer zone.

Where did the idea for AniMela originate, and why is an initiative like AniMela necessary in India?

AniMela is essentially India’s first international animation, gaming, visual effects, comics and XR (AVGC-XR) festival. In a country of 1.4 billion people, there is not a single platform or a festival where we celebrate Indian talent or we project India as a brand to the world which is a very important gap that we need to fill.

The reason for this is because while India has some incredible talent, it does not have a space for mentorship, exhibiting its work, for learning, interaction, networking, really for the business of AVGC-XR; and AniMela hopes to fill that void. That’s where the idea of AniMela originated, because there is a huge need that the entire industry recognizes. But very few people are actually willing to fill that void. And the AniMela team is doing that right now.

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Where does the AVGC sector of India stand currently, and where do you see it in the next 5 years?

Currently the AVGC sector of India is in a good space because we are growing at 30% per year. But it’s mostly catering to the international audience, through international studios for whom we are currently doing back-end work. In that sense, we are the back office for the world. Our current growth rate is 30%, which is a great growth rate if you see it from an objective perspective. But there is absolutely no Indian IP (intellectual property) to talk about in the international arena.

We don’t have a single AAA game, we don’t have a single animation IP or series or a film which is recognized internationally and accepted worldwide. There are two and a half lakh people employed in the industry and this is the current status. In the next five years, hopefully AniMela and many other initiatives will act as catalysts to change things. I personally see about at least a million people employed. Our revenues will grow from the current approximately 2 billion dollars to about 8 to 10 billion dollars, hopefully. These plans are ambitious, and it can happen only if we go up the value chain and become creators, rather than just remain as a service providing economy.

Gaming sector in India is on new heights. What do you want to say about this new category got created in India & in terms of Career option how Important This Category is for Indian Youth

While India is employing more and more people in the gaming sector, unfortunately, we’re still not being able to create our own games. There is a big gap in terms of understanding how game development and game narrative works. As we speak, those skill gaps are being narrowed. But we’re still, I’d say, maybe 3 – 5 years away from making a AAA game. The real triumph for the Indian gaming industry will be not when we service the international industry, which we are doing currently, but when we also create our own games that are renowned and sold internationally. These hopefully will be game narratives that are intrinsically Indian, but made for the world; stories and gameplay that travel across the world.

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What kind of films & film-related experiences will AniMela offer?

AniMela will have 15 feature films and many programmes that have been given to us by the Annecy festival and other partners. Annecy is the world’s largest and best animation film festival, and it’s been running for 64 years now. It is the most respected one in the world right now and they are our partners, so we hope to be the Annecy of India someday.

So, there’s going to be a huge experience. Of course, we are having a lot of workshops and knowledge sessions. Some of which will be delving the ‘making of’ some very popular films. We’re having an entire XR space, meta developers, a gaming experience there as well and we’re having a over a hundred Indie comic creators. Through the four-day festival, you will see a plethora of AVGC-XR creators display their work and reach out to the rest of the world.

We’re also looking at about 20 people coming in from overseas – distributors, filmmakers, creators, artists who will be gracing the occasion and sharing their knowledge as well as their films with us.

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What kind of Games people will get to experience at AniMela?

At AniMela, we will have an entire game developer zone and also an experience zone for gaming as well. As I said, meta developers are coming in and they will provide a myriad experience. We have a very strong tie-up with Tulsea, the global content and talent management agency. Akash Menon, who’s an expert in this area, is leading the gaming section for us. You will see a lot of exciting names come in and showcase their games. We also have our Knowledge series, which is an ongoing session that we do every month. Through that, we have a lot of game developers from all over India, including Reliance Games and many others.

In the past year, numerous AI websites and technologies have emerged globally. Yet, here you are striving to amplify India’s AVGC sector. Could AI potentially replace animators or VFX artists? If so, does India possess a union capable of preventing production houses from opting for AI? This concern is akin to recent actor & Writers strikes.

While AI is making huge strides, India is not far behind in that domain as well. When we talk about the game narrative, we talk about animation. We talk about visual effects and comics. AI will definitely simplify things. But AI will not replace the original ideas, the original narrative, the original creativity of the individual. The so-called voice of the artist will not be stifled because AI does not have a voice. It is just collating information or plagiarizing or mimicking many artists in their styles.

So, we believe that there is scope for AI to simplify many of the processes that are used in the AVGC-XR space. But, replacing art, creativity, storytelling, originality, which is coming through personal experience, is something that is a big challenge for AI. It’s going to take many decades, perhaps, for AI to catch up with those.

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