DQ to shift some work to Bengal unit

Hyderabad-based DQ Entertainment (DQE), one of the biggest animation and gaming production houses in the country, plans to shift some its high end processing work to its recently set up production unit in Sector V of Kolkata.

More than 20 percent of the production work of DQE would be moved to West Bengal where DQE expected to expand in a phased manner, said Taapas Chakravarti, chairman & CEO, DQE, on the sidelines of a FICCI meet in Kolkata.

DQE would invest another Rs 200 crore in the next one and a half years for the future expansion and projects streamlined, he added.

DQE had around 27 television series, seven features, 11 games in the pipeline.

According to Chakravarti, three French animation production work would be shifted from the company's Hyderabad base to Kolkata production unit.

The Kolkata unit currently has a capacity of 300 employees expected to be tripled by next year.

The three animation series produced from the Kolkata Sector V unit would be the Casper series which is a $9 million project,

Iron man and the Little Nick series would be co-produced by DQ Entertainment, France's M6 studio and Method Animation SA.

All the projects would be largely for the global market which would be produced from Kolkata unit.

DQE also plans to make animated versions of Feluda and a few Bengal classics to cater to the global audiences, said Chakravarti.

DQE inaugurated its first production unit in Kolkata on Wednesday at Salt Lake sector V, with 280 employees.

DQE, listed on London Stock Exchange, has raised around $56 million, utilised for expansion of the company's production facilities at Mumbai, Chennai, Phillipines, Manila, Los Angeles .

The company would also be looking at acquisitions in the animation space, entertainment and gaming in 2009 for which discussions are going on, said Chakravarti, without divulging details.

Currently the company has close to 4,000 personnel in the country which it would scale up to cater to the large animation and gaming industry in India.

The gaming and animation industry in India is estimated to be close to $600 million, expected to increase to $1.1 billion by 2010. The company invested close to Rs 100 crore in the last four to five months with around 11 crore investment in the Kolkata unit alone.