India's animation industry still hasn't grown beyond the start-up phase

India-born animation for Indian audiences has for long been marked by shallow pockets and subpar content

Seated at a round table, like King Arthur’s knights, are students at Arena Animation in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru. Armed with plain paper and pencils, they all have their own holy grails to pursue. One of them is sketching a human figure frozen mid-flight. All rippling muscles and wearing only underpants, a red lightning-shaped mask covers the character’s face. “I’m still deciding on his superpowers,” says the student. Behind the group is a table covered with pot-bellied clay Ganeshas — the result of an anatomy class coinciding with a festival. On another floor, a student has just finished making a dragon in