When DreamWorks Studios, the American film production company, first planned on setting shop in other markets, they launched a sort of international location scouting, before zeroing in on Bengaluru , back in 2008. Creative Director Philippe Gluckman says the diverse culture in India was one of the key factors which led them to take that decision.
“I feel the culture here lends itself to creative things. Also, there is a large native talent pool in animation here. The knowledge of English also helps. Cost-effectiveness was a factor, but not the dominant reason,” says Gluckman, who was in the city this weekend to participate in the Animation Masters summit organised by the Toonz Media Group.
In the initial days of the DreamWorks Dedicated Unit in Bangalore, the team was producing animated commercials. TV specials, high-quality material produced exclusively for television, happened later.
Just six years later, in 2014, they produced their first full-length feature Penguins of Madagascar .
“Making major parts of Puss in Boots here was a big deal for us. With Penguins… , we went a step ahead. We worked right from building the characters, the look of the film, to the production phase. Though we planned to produce the entire film here, the last part had to be shifted out owing to scheduling issues,” he says.
Working with a young team of 240, a majority of whom are from India, reminds Gluckman of his earlier days in the industry, of working with small dynamic teams.
Downside
“The only downside here is working so far from the U.S., and the problems of different timelines. But, coming to India changed me, artistically and personally. I am a runner and of late, I have been going into villages and the visual culture there is so fascinating. Also, the people are very welcoming and warm. I am also interested in learning languages. We now speak Hindi at home. We also watch Hindi films occasionally, like the Munnabhai series or 3 Idiots .”
Working on Indian content is something that he looks forward to, although the studios are yet to warm up to it. Plans were there to produce a ‘Bollywood-style’ musical on Ramayana, which did not take off. “I have seen some of the animation films produced here. Some are interesting and some are dated. But I feel we need to continue to give opportunities to people from here. With the kind of talent pool here, it is unfortunate that the artists here think that they have to go outside the country to make it. This scenario should change.”
He feels that some of the animation films being produced internationally follow a stale formula. “In the initial days, we were making very ambitious expensive films. But, we have to move beyond this one model of making animation films. We now have more diverse markets, and we have to make targeted films.”
