Entertainment unlimited
By Venkatachari Jagannathan | 13 Apr 2001
Disclosing this, Mr. V.S. Sundararajan, chief executive officer (CEO) and president of the company, says, "Total Infotainment will acquire 25 per cent and 51 per cent stake in the proposed joint ventures with ToonCity and DIC, US, respectively. While $3.25 lakh will be invested in the joint venture company floated with ToonCity, the investment in the outfit partnering with DIC will be $ lakh."
According to him, the investments will bring in orders worth $14 million for Total Infotainment over next two years. The two entities, ToonCity and DIC, are promoted by experienced industry professionals.
Already, ToonCity has bagged an animation order from Film Club, USA, for two serials of 26 episodes each for the US and German markets and Total Infotainment will be getting $ 2 million worth of work.
Besides this, Total Infotainment has also clinched an interactive multimedia order – computer-based tutorials – from Postal Software. "The order value is $ 2.1 lakh and is an ongoing project," adds Mr. Sundararajan.
On the whole, Total Infotainment has a total order book position of $ 14 million of which $ 8 million have to be executed before this December and the balance before March 2002. "Our aim is to close this year with an order book position of $ 20 million," Mr. Sundararajan hopes.
Contrary to the earlier target of closing this fiscal with a turnover of $ 2 million, the company, due to some unforeseen circumstances, has to scale it down to $ 1million. After the first level of investment to the tune of $ 2.5 million, Total Infotainment plans to invest another $ 5 million by this December.
Currently having 200 employees, the company has plans to increase the staff strength by another 150 before June given its order book position.
Moreover, the company is venturing into the entertainment sector by producing television serials. It plans to leverage this activity to promote its animation capability abroad to procure more orders. The company is also talking with the Chennai-based amusement park, MGM, for providing animation/special effects for this theme park.
Speaking about the animation industry in India, Mr. Sundararajan is of the view that a lot of US companies are closing their operations and are palming orders to Indian outfits.
Apart from Total Infotainment and the well-known Pentamedia Graphics Ltd, Chennai, the other notable player in the field is the Hyderabad-based Color Chips Ltd. There are small companies that are active in ad world like the Mumbai-based 2nZ. Apart from films – cinema and commercial – there are several other segments like games, web casting, where animation is necessary.
As a result, more companies are eyeing this sector. It learnt that Data Quest, Padmalaya Telefilms, UTV, AtoZ Multimedia and Toons, Thiruvananthapuram, are some of the new entrants into the animation industry. In order to cash in on the likely demand for animators, Color Chips, like Pentamedia Graphics, has started a training division in Hyderabad.
"By next year, the total domestic industry size will be around $ 250 million," predicts Mr. Sundararajan.
