Picasso Digital to set up two animation colleges

Picasso Digital Media Private Limited, promoted by Maharishi group and Hyderabad-based Rayudu Vision Media Limited, is setting up state-of-the-art animation colleges "� one each at Hyderabad and Delhi. For this, Picasso will collaborate with Centennial College, one of the oldest and most reputed colleges in Canada.

Addressing a press conference at the launch of the company, ABRP Reddy, founder managing director, Picasso Digital Media Pvt Ltd, said that the total investment envisaged in the project in the next five years is about $9 million. According to Reddy, the Hyderabad campus was under construction and the courses are expected to start by the first week of August.

Picasso would primarily focus on animation education and production. During the first phase, the company would focus on in-house requirements from its business partners.

In the second phase, Picasso will focus on developing its intellectual property for which the manpower requirement would be sourced within the organisation.

The global market in animation is pegged at $70 billion of which the Indian industry taps a mere 0.7 per cent, he said adding, skilled manpower shortage was being felt what with about 50-60 studios being set up in the last three years.

"There are about 10,000 animators in India at present and about 2,000 are being trained every year. Of them, only about 40 per cent are capable of handling complex 3D works," he said. Classical 2D at the lower end of the spectrum fetches up to $5,000 per minute while complex 3D work gets paid up to $12,000 per minute.

Reddy said that the India's strengths lie in the strong outsourcing model, lower manpower costs together with communication skills in English apart from various mythological and folk stories that make for better content.