Toonz Academy bullish on Chinese animation market

"Animation as an opportunity is enormous in the Chinese market place with huge scope to provide broad-based industry-academia related curricula for students. We intend to tap into this emerging market, which no institution has entered so far, and have already initiated discussions with the Chinese government in this regard," Ramaprasad S, executive director of Toonz Academy, said here on Wednesday.

The academy had recently signed MoUs with various Chinese universities including the Beijing University, Shengyang University and Dalian University to start centres of excellence in animation. As part of this, a student exchange programme will facilitate 50 Chinese students to study in India from this August.

"We will devise a six-month course in classical (2D) and 3D animation after which we will design a two-year programme as per the Chinese industry requirements, before introducing a three-year BS degree in digital animation in affiliation with the European Carolus Magnus University by the next academic year," he said.

Toonz Academy, part of animation studio Toonz Animation India, is also exploring possible avenues in geographies like West Asia, Europe and Africa. It had initiated a deal with the Abu Dhabi Media Zone to set up an academy in West Asia, which would start operations in July this year. "Negotiations are in advance stages to set up animation training centres in Maldives, Sri Lanka and Africa," Ramaprasad said.

On the domestic front, the academy at present has five training facilities, offering a one-year advanced diploma course in digital arts and animation. It plans to add 15 centres during this fiscal in cities like Ahmedabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Bangalore, Chennai and Coimbatore.

Toonz Academy, which posted revenues of $4 million (Rs 16 crore) last year, forecasts its topline to touch $15 million (Rs 60 crore) on the back of its expansion, international tie-ups and royalties from its 20 facilities.