Mumbai – Day Three

Today is our full-on get-to-know-the-industry day. We start with a round table with five leading players in the industry – Mr Biswajeet Chatterjee (sound engineer) Dr Siddharth Jain (Technical Director and Studio owner), Mr Vivek Agrawal (VFX Director and Post Production Supervisor), Mr Anurag Pandey (Radio DJ) and Mr Rajiv Shah (Consultant). I was asked to chair the discussion, and we agreed four key areas that we wanted to cover – Talent, Technology, Process and Money.

There are no real gaps in the skill levels of staff here. The story painted was one of perfection – though I think that this may be a case of saving face rather than an accurate picture. The flow of talent into the industry is much like the UK – people start at the bottom and work there way up. There seemed to be more gaps in the audio side of things than the visual, and there was an interesting angle with Indian editors getting “etiquette” training to be prepared to work for western clients. Some overseas staff did work here – mainly from the East rather than the West (Singapore for example) but on the whole it seemed like local companies employed local talent. Training (when it happened) was of the on-the-job variety, though I am not sure how much structured support is given. Nepotism seems ripe, with no single College, University or Training Institution being singled out as an excellent source of keen young things. No industry training provider was identified either.

When it came to technology we heard that whilst there was all the new kit that we have in the UK – a lot of companies are relying on older kit. As I mentioned before, the producer is king when it comes to choosing companies or striking deals – and therefore key to the compromises that have to be made – less budget means less high end technology, which can mean more time. Connectivity was also talked of as a concern – every thing seemed to be transferred by physical means rather than over secure pipes, which raised security concerns. There was no connectivity between the different companies.

This was elaborated on – these companies never seem to collaborate. These companies said told us that the vast majority of work was film, with advertising coming second. Very little was done in television. I felt like we were listening to a meeting of MPC and Framestore, rather than an overview of the whole post sector. Much partnership work happened with Australia for one company, but none with the UK.

With a film industry dominated by stars (the main stars can command 50-60% of the overall film budget) things seemed as tight for Mumbai as it is for London. There were other subtle differences – one company received payment in stages, but got final payment before delivery of the final reel. An interesting area was in import tax. Yes import duty was at least 40%, but the companies gave a cheque to the Government for this amount that is cancelled if the company can demonstrate that they had exported an equivalent amount in a five year period. And this export could be in any form – work included. You can purchase other people’s “exports”, or make deals.

I ended the discussion by asking what our hosts thought would be fruitful collaboration. Dr Jain was very clear that one company should wholesale open an office in Mumbai, to start to build relationships, trust, and business. Radio (we were told that there are only five radio stations in Mumbai) as mentioned as an opportunity along with training. The massively expanding mobile and gaming industry also seem to be untapped.

Later that evening we had a further seminar, opened up to wider guests from the industry. Presentations on the scale and financial picture, the state of technology, the tax laws and IP were all given. It was a fairly long and detailed evening, with some areas of more interest than others. One area of concern for me was the conflicting figures we were given for the size of the industry. On the one hand we were told that there were 140,000 animators then the next day its 4000. One day it is 350 post production studios; the next its 2000. It is quite difficult at present to understand the size of the industry is and how it is growing – which makes it impossible to gauge what partnerships would work.

The night ends with a cocktail reception with the Film London producers and the cream of Mumbai post production. Many of the studios here are not those that we have planned to visit, so we are rearranging our future programme.