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Adith Charlie

Sangli (Maharashtra), June 8 Twenty-three-year-old Deepak Patil, a resident of the sleepy town of Sangli in hinterland Maharashtra, washes cars in the early hours of the day. But come 10 a.m., and he slips into a different world altogether — a world of colours, designs and moving pictures.

Deepak is one of 18 students enrolled in Ani Zooms, Sangli’s first animation training centre. A joint-initiative of Nasscom Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of infotech industry body Nasscom and Sangli-based Suraj Foundation, Ani-Zooms is also supported by Hyderabad-based Star Features, which provides the course material and training to the students. Nasscom has projected that the Indian animation industry would clock revenues of $1.16 billion by 2012.

Nasscom Foundation and Suraj Foundation (the CSR arm of Sangli-based agro-product-maker the Pranav Group) have equal equity participation in Ani Zooms, Ms Rufina Fernandes, Chief Executive Officer of Nasscom Foundation said on the sidelines of the inaugural function of Ani Zooms.

At Ani-Zooms, students can do the nine month animation course for up to Rs 15,000. A course of the same duration would take anywhere up to Rs 1.5 lakh in tier-one cities such as Mumbai, according to Ms Fernandes.

The academy has also managed to get corporates such as Fidelity to sponsor two needy students.

It has already initiated talks with animation firms such as Crest Animation and Star Features for hiring some of the students who are currently studying at Ani-Zooms.

“We are in the process of coming up with 1,700 hours of animation content for various forthcoming initiatives. As a result, we are on the look out for quality talent,” said Mr Uttam Kumar, Founder CEO of Star Features. Students could expect to earn between Rs 6,000-40,000 depending on their levels of expertise, said Mr Kumar.

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