Delhi-based Picasso Digital Media Private Limited, which is promoted by the Maharishi Group, plans to invest around Rs $9 million, or about Rs 36 crore, in animation education and production over the next five years. [via Business Standard] The company has envisaged building capacity of 1,000 students at its soon-to-be-launched animation college in Hyderabad by the end of 2008. While the full-time programme will cost Rs 5.5 lakh, its part-time course has a price tag of Rs 1.8 lakh. In addition, the group has plans for a campus with facilities for 250 students in Visakhapatnam and for an animation production unit in Hyderabad.
As U.S. and European film production companies look to India to outsource their animation work, demand for animators will drive up enrollments at Indian animation schools. The question is will they get world class training? Picasso plans to hire alumni from its Delhi and Hyderabad campus as teaching staff. If the teachers at such training centers are not experienced enough, students will be poor quality and business flowing in from Hollywood production houses is likely to shrink owing to the lower standards.