The truth about animation industry in India.

 

"ANIMATION" industry in India is going through a very tough time. Most of the big animation studios like Crest, Prana, DQ entertainment, Big animation etc. are terminating people in huge numbers dut to the lack of work. Most of the studios have reduced to half or less than half of there original strength. Most of the studios don't have any new projects for future. No one knows when any of them might close down.
But still nobody is telling this to the students who dream of a career in the animation industry that the animation institutes are still projecting a rosy picture of the industry. They are the only people making money with this industry. They charge lakhs of rupees from students, making them dream about working in animation industry and in international companies like Pixar, Dreamworks etc. But in reality, the teaching is so pathetic that the students don't even get selected in Indian studios and with the lack of works, there is no demand for any new people. In fact the people who are working in companies also don't know when they might be thrown out. but still the institutes are throwing around figures and statements like "Indian animation industry needs 100000 people" "Indian animation industry is a mutli-billion dollar industry" and stuff like that.
the truth is that there is no "boom" in industry.
Coming to the salary, one may get Rupees 6000 to 7000 per month, maximum after spending about 1.5-2 Lakh rupees and have to work for long hours. How can one survive with such salaries in metros(like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore etc) where all the studios are situated?
Another thing is that there is no work satisfaction. All the so called animation companies in India are sweatshops for US and Europe companies. The point of the animation education these institutes emphasise is that you can use you "CREATIVITY" "IDEAS" etc. in the way you want but the truth is you creative freedom is limited in the the studios as there are many people involved in the project.

Regarding the placement of the students that the institutes promise, people should really try to find out  how many students among the so called "Placed" students work in an actual "Animation" or "VFX" company.
The truth is that most of the so called "Placed" students work as graphic designers in small companies ranging from digital studios, where there job is just retouching the images of people) to designing pamphlets for coaching classes. and they barely get any salary.
Some of those students who just pass out of the institute are made in faculties in that institute itself. When the person has not worked in the industry how can he teach others about it?