The
entire animation industry was elated last night with
FICCI presenting the Frames 'Best of Animation' (BAF)
Awards. This was the first of its kind designed for
the evolving animation industry.
Inaugurating the awards ceremony, Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary
General, FICCI, applauded the efforts of the Indian
animation industry and said that India produces 4,000
animated characters and the requirement is likely to
go up to 30,000 characters within the next three-four
years.
Ashish Kulkarni, COO, Jadoo Works Pvt Ltd, and member
of the FICCI Entertainment Committee, welcomed Andy
Bird, President, Walt Disney International, who was
the Guest of Honour for the awards evening.
FICCI-BAF awards presented by IBM-Shaf Broadcast Pvt
Ltd had two rounds of jury screening the nominations.
In the first round the jury selected four nominations
in each category and the final jury selected one from
each category. There were in all four awards between
the four categories. There were two special jury awards
constituted for extraordinary work in the field of animation
and a Life Time Achievement Award and a special award
for the contribution made to the industry for promoting
the industry.
The jury comprised Govind Nihalani, Nina Sabnani, Head
Creative, NID, Don Pero of Canada, Margaret Donald,
Mallard Media of Scotland, and Bob Last, Ink Animation
of Scotland.
Nihalani presented the Special Jury awards category.
This category had two awards and Meenakshi Vinay Rai
bagged the award for the production of 'SpanDan'. The
second award went to Toonz Animation for the production
of 'Adventures of Hanuman'.
ManMohan Shetty was asked to present the Life Time Achievement
Award and a citation. None other than the Father of
Indian Animation Ram Mohan bagged the award. Ram Mohan
has been involved with the industry for the last 25
years and has worked towards the promotion of this industry
both globally as well as on the domestic shores. He
has so far taught over 3,000 and is considered the legend
of Indian animation.
After accepting the award, Ram Mohan said, "I am
honoured to receive this award". He thanked FICCI
for the honour conferred upon him and sharing the award
with the entire industry, he said, "Indian animation
has finally moved to the centre-stage and has found
a place within the Indian entertainment industry".
FICCI BAF also conferred a special award upon Joan Vogelesang
of Canadian firm Toon Boon Technology for the promotion
of Indian animation in the global arena. Quentin Stae-polet
of IBM presented the award. Unfortunately she was not
present to accept the award. A member of the Canadian
Business delegation accepted the award on her behalf.
Talking about the awards, the industry professionals
were happy that something like this was being started
for the animation industry. Raj Gopal Iyer, Senior Marketing
Manager, Jadooworks, said, "The timing is right
for an award such as this as the industry is also slowly
and steadily evolving".
Sabnani said, "It is an excellent effort put forth
by FICCI." But, she felt that some lead-time should
have been given to the animators to present their work.
Agreeing with her was Bhiren Ghosh, CEO, Animation Bridge.
He said, "It is an excellent step taken by FICCI
but if good quality content needs to enter the awards
then it requires enough lead time to work on it".
