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Interview with Mr. Ram Mohan
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(Chairman - Graphiti
Multimedia Pvt. Ltd.)
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Animation is a good career, but only if you are ready to put the hard work and in love with the medium. This is the message that the doyen of India's animation industry, Mr. Ram Mohan seems to be conveying to all those who care about animation and art when he ponders about the evolution of animation in India and the challenges that the industry is presently facing in an exclusive interview with Indiaedu. Not only is he echoing Don Bluth, who said “When business executives are making the artistic decisions and don't understand animation, things can go awry”, in the ten questions that were posed to him, Ram Mohan reveals his favorite institutes in India and abroad, the personal traits that the budding animation artists need to have, prospect of the students and various other important issues. Read the full interview below -
Indiaedu: How has the animation industry evolved in India?
Mr. Ram Mohan: Indian Animation Industry’s growth has been distinctly lop-sided. Until the 1980’s, small animation studios functioned as self-sustaining units which offered both pre-production design, and comprehensive production services. However, since the mid 1990’s, When animation in India took on the dimensions of an ‘Industry’, large studios employing hundreds of artists and technicians have chosen to operate in the sweat-shop/factory mode, neglecting the creative design and story-telling aspects of animation.
Indiaedu:How is outsourcing helping the industry?
Mr. Ram Mohan: Outsourcing helps sustain a large number of studios in India and has created numerous job opportunities that did not exist before. Servicing producers outside India has exposed our animators and technicians to international quality norms and benchmarks. Many studios have benefited from employing trainers from abroad and the presence of a supervising director usually promotes better performances in terms of quality, productivity and discipline.
Indiaedu: What is the biggest challenge, you think, the animation industry is facing today?
Mr. Ram Mohan: (a) Indian animation industry continues to suffer from a perpetual shortage of well-trained, skilled animators and other technicians. Those who have the necessary professional experience are pricing themselves beyond sustainable limits. Studios are constrained therefore to ‘make do’ with an affordable workforce providing sub-standard output.
(b) Producers who wish to move on from mere outsourcing to developing original content find themselves handicapped by the lack of writers and designers with knowledge and experience of the animation medium. The ‘make do’ ‘chalta hai’ attitude of producers has already resulted in some disastrous, half baked features whose failures at the box-office is likely to bring back the old prejudicial market perception that animation(cartoon!) films do not work for Indian audiences.
Indiaedu: What is the prospect of the students who are getting enrolled in various animation courses?
Mr. Ram Mohan: Youngsters, who have been told that animation is a good, ‘lucrative’ profession to get into, are rushing to join animation-training institutes for quickie courses that promise to make them full-fledged animators in six months or less! While animation could be a richly rewarding career, it is important that the student should choose the school with care, checking out the features of its courseware, its faculty and its track record, With the right kind of training , he/she can look forward to good career prospects, but it is important to bear in mind that there is no short-cut to fame and fortune. It takes years of patient, dedicated hard work to achieve recognition and rewards.
Indiaedu: What are the most favored courses in the animation industry?
Mr. Ram Mohan: Animation remains the most favored course, mainly because there is a demand for this category in larger numbers Modeling, rigging and lighting are also in demand. Training institutes who concentrate more often-on software operations do not generally offer courses in pre-production and animation design (characters, storyboard, and layouts). The National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and the Industrial Design Center, IIT Bombay, are two of the very few institutes that offer courses in the creative aspects of animation production, but admission to these schools is by a competitive all-India entrance examination and is limited to only a few. More such courses need to be offered to aspiring animation designers. Graphiti School of Animation has introduced this year a post-graduate certification course in pre-production design (G-CAT Master) for graduates from art schools and colleges.
Indiaedu: How many students from India go abroad for pursuing animation courses? Are the course fees too high? What are the financial aids that one can go for?
Mr. Ram Mohan: There was a time when anyone who opted for animation education had to go abroad to US, Canada or France, but now there are a large number of animation schools in India that provide at least the basics in production techniques. Studying animation abroad is very expensive; the courses offered are at under graduate and post-graduate levels and the annual tuition fees alone would be around USD 20,000 at any good school. Admissions are given on the basis of good portfolios and if you are lucky you may get a scholarship that reduces the financial burden.
Comparatively the courses offered by animation schools in India are much more affordable, in the range of 1.25 to 1.50 lakhs per year, and are generally adequate to meet the basic needs of our industry. Some of these schools have tie-ups with art schools abroad, and offer programmes where the student, after completion of two years in India, could complete his graduation studies abroad at the affiliate institute.
For students studying in India many banks offer students loans on easy terms.
Indiaedu: What are the personal traits, you think, are needed for building a successful career in animation?
Mr. Ram Mohan: To be a successful animation professional you need a keen interest in animation as a film- making and a story-telling process, a capacity to appreciate good design, and more than anything else, a willingness to put in long hours of meticulous hard work. Patience, diligence, discipline, these and a genuine love of the medium, that is all that is needed for a successful career in animation.
Indiaedu: What is the salary range that one can expect after completing a course in animation?
Mr. Ram Mohan: A student on completion of a one-year course in animation, with specialization in any one or two, aspects of the production process, can expect a starting salary of eight to ten thousand rupees a month. Someone completing a post-graduate diploma course from NID or a master of design (M.Des) from IDC. Powai can expect a salary of Rs 40,000 to 50,000 per month, but opportunities for employment on a salary basis in pre-production are still quite limited, and will grow only when Indian producers venture into creation more of intellectual properties. Until then, this pre- production tasks will be mainly assigned on a contract basis.
Indiaedu: Name few best institutes in India and abroad that offer animation courses.
Mr. Ram Mohan: India
- Graphiti School of Animation
- National Institute of Design
- Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay
Abroad
- California Institute of the Arts
- Sheridan College, Toronto
- School of Visual Arts, New York
- Vancouver Film School
- GOBELAIN, France
Indiaedu: Any message to the young minds for choosing their career?
Mr. Ram Mohan:Watch many movies. Read many books. Listen to music, attend dance and theatre performances, and train yourself to draw. Cinema, literature, and the performing arts- they all come together in the Art of Animation.
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