Why Indian Animation is lagging behind?

Walt Disney and Pixar set the measure for 2D and 3D animation, Japan has crossed all the conventional barriers with its anime and is constantly stretching its limits in this form of entertainment. But when it comes to India, we are still struggling to get the basics right, we are still struggling to understand the true potential of this medium, and most importantly we are still struggling to embrace the art of animation.

The animation is undoubtedly the most flexible form of film-making with the ability to go beyond the expected and truly justify your imagination without any limitation, boundaries or complications of physical and technical resources. In short, a perfect medium to explore stories, subject matter, and character development.

But despite its liberty to look beyond the conventional film-making, India is still not able to impress the globe with the quality of our home-grown productions. Sure it’s easier to jump on the conclusion and blame the budget, creators and the lack of latest technologies for the condition of our content, but let’s not point out the obvious today as we really need to look deeper in order to find one of the most vital faults in our creations. We really need to stop turning our heads and quit pretending as if we don’t see, because the real issue is embedded within us.

Yes, the animation is often overlooked by Indian audiences as it generally comes with a connotation of childishness. Unlike in Japan where anime is such an integral part of their culture, we are still unable to delve deeper into this vast world of cartoons and are unwilling to explore outside usual Bollywood films and T.V shows. Americans at one point had the same thick attitude towards animation, but constant attention and open-mindedness towards the art by a large number of audiences forced the makers to come up with better concepts that can appeal to everyone with a soul, and hunger for great stories.

Recently, the number one You tuber PewDiePie reacted sarcastically on one of the most popular Indian animated shows and pointed out some technical, creative and conceptual absurdities that anyone with basic understanding of this medium can identify. But what bothered me the most is that he was shocked that we are exposing our kids to such content. Which we as viewers and specifically as parents should not ignore. But guess what?, WE DID IGNORE!. Generally, when someone passes a ridiculing opinion towards our nation and things related to it, we are quick to respond and defend ourselves, but this time nobody came to the rescue. Why? Because he was right to a great extent.

All we can say, If we want to bring a revolution in Indian Animation, then we as audiences need to alter our approach towards the art and demand for a better quality product by raising our voices against current supply, and more importantly show our support and faith in our highly talented artist and creators. Because we have the potential, we have the talent, we have the passion. All we need is “YOU”, all we need is your attention, and all we need is your love. Because once you will get involved, step by step, little by little, we will be there at the grandest stage of all, AT THE OSCARS. In fact, we have already been there, we just chose to ignore, THINK ABOUT IT!.

And the first step towards making a change is by sharing this article, so please do share, like, comment and contribute towards building this wonderful art.