ANIMATION & VFX ECOSYSTEM — AT A GLANCE
AnimationXpress (2004-2019). GamingXpress (2009-2019). Axapac (Asia Pacific Edition).
Written 600+ editorial posts, interviews, case studies, and industry articles
Organised 70+ animation, VFX, and gaming industry forums across 20+ Indian cities
Participated at 100+ global and Indian panels as speaker, moderator, and panelist
35,000+ industry professionals and artists reached globally within the first two years
5 international jury duties — Annecy 2018 (France), ITFS 2013 Stuttgart (Germany), TAAFI 2013 Toronto (remote), Jidou Anima Awards 2007 Hong Kong (remote), AYACC Guiyang (China)
Spoken at MIPCOM Junior (Cannes), NAB (Las Vegas), Annecy (France), X Media Lab (Suzhou), Children’s Media Conference (Sheffield), MDEC Kre8Tif (KL), ESDAA 3D Stereo Conference (Singapore), Pop Con (Djakarta), AYACC (Guiyang, multiple editions), International Cultural Industries Forum (Guangzhou)
Invited as eminent editor and industry influencer by UKTI (London Games Festival), IDA Ireland (Animation Hub Tour), NVIDIA (Santa Clara), Autodesk (World Press Days, San Francisco), TBS (DigiCon, Tokyo)
Delegate at VES Awards Hollywood, Siggraph LA, Siggraph Asia, GDC San Francisco, Kidscreen Summit New York, Spark Vancouver, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, London Book Fair, Television Animation Conference Ottawa, Cartoons on the Bay Positano, CG Overdrive Singapore, and more. Media partner for VES India Tour.
Set up Axapac with core team: dedicated Asia Pacific focus covering Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia. Worked closely with MDEC, TAGCA, SIPA, and regional industry bodies and government associations
Published Housefull, featuring close to 100 animated features in the making in India (2008)
Over a dozen awards curated end to end (via role at AnimationXpress)
Awarded Mover and Shaker of Indian Animation Industry, 24FPS 2006
Have continued to organise AI in Media and Entertainment conferences and meetups
The animation ecosystem is in my DNA. I have a very deep, karmic, multi-faceted relationship, kinship, and dharma towards the animation industry. This is because I first and foremost have a very strong kinship with the artist and the animator. With the character designer, with the look and feel development artist, with the rigger, with the modeller, with the texturing artist, with the lighting artist, with the comping artist, with the filmmaker, with the screenwriter, and with all the various amazing technical experts and artists who bring stories to life.
AnimationXpress is not just a publication or a portal. It began with a heartbeat and soon became the nucleus of the industry. Since the first edition as a newsletter in 2004, since it first became an entity in 2006, through the entire journey till 2019 when I formally exited, AnimationXpress co-belonged to me. I, on the other hand, always belonged to the Indian animation, VFX, and gaming industry, and eventually to the global animation and VFX industry. As the industries matured, gaming became its own distinct focus by 2009 with GamingXpress, but the ecosystem was always interconnected.
I started compiling an animation newsletter with links to animation stories published in other publications. First a fortnightly, then a weekly, then one with guest articles, and then the magic of writing began. Within two years, with in-depth case studies, insightful interviews, and a focus on amplifying both the art and the business of animation, AnimationXpress became the voice of Indian animation. I was running it single-handedly for nearly three years before I finally built a team.
Writing for AnimationXpress gave me a chance to use multiple skills, the main one being my ability to understand and grasp the artist’s voice, sometimes reticent, sometimes loaded with expression, but always focused on the art. I sat with studio heads and with fresh texture artists with equal curiosity. I wrote deep technical case studies breaking down VFX pipelines shot by shot, passionate editorials challenging the industry to invest in training, and session-by-session coverage from festivals across the world. The ability to articulate these voices and amplify, over time, all the various constituents of the ecosystem. From the technology majors to the resellers. From the production studio heads to the boutique creators. From the academia and mentors to the eager learners. From government and policy to the co-producers. And the distribution to match: within the first two years, we were reaching over 35,000 industry professionals and artists all over the world.
And then, from building the fabric of communication between the various animation constituents in India, to taking the message of India globally.
Annecy, the world’s most prestigious animation festival and market, became my second home. What began as visits for coverage and learning deepened over a decade into something far more significant. I served as the India and Southeast Asia representative for Annecy and MIFA for ten years, building bridges between the Indian animation ecosystem and the global industry. I organised the Indian Animation Pavilion at MIFA for seven consecutive years, creating a sustainable business model that gave Indian studios, creators, and institutions a credible, consistent presence at the world’s largest animation market. Beyond the pavilion, I was invited to speak, present, moderate, and eventually to serve on the jury at Annecy itself, a journey that moved from the audience to the stage to the jury room.
In September 2007, we launched AITF, the Animation and Interactive Technology Forum. Very focused on studio production and rendering pipelines. Plugin development, tool development, render farms, optimisation, real-time for gaming, pre-rendered for animation. We did three editions.
On 1st January 2008, instead of celebrating the new year in other ways, I was sending over a hundred one-on-one emails to leaders of the industry. The subject was the Industry Academia Interface. Studios always complained about the paucity of talent, too many projects, not enough skilled people. Meanwhile, there were over a hundred thousand students across all the animation institutes, academies, and their multi-city franchises. The gap was industry-focused training. The institutes asked for industry to do guest faculty and give student projects for better exposure. I was not the first one to point this out or attempt to do something about it. I was one of the many people pushing the cause. But from January to May, we ran multi-city industry academia roundtables, and in May, a national two-day summit with the presence of all leading studios and institutes. The IAI continued in different avatars for a few years.
Then the Animated Feature Forum, where we published a book called Housefull, which featured close to a hundred animated features in the making in 2008. We brought the trade together, the distributors, the investors and financiers, the producers, directors, writers, the animation houses, and the exhibitors.
Animation Ahoy took fifty-plus students to Singapore and Malaysia to attend CG Overdrive, followed by visits to studios and universities. We set up Axapac with a core team, launching a dedicated focus on Asia Pacific animation, covering Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia, working closely with MDEC, TAGCA, SIPA, and regional industry bodies and government associations, fostering awareness and collaboration between neighbouring ecosystems, curating and spotlighting studios, artists, and projects across the region.
On the awards and programming front, I was involved end to end, setting up juries, managing entries, curating and programming for over a dozen awards including the CNBC Golden Cursor Animation Awards, EME Infocom Awards, Arena and Aptech Orbit Live Industry Honours. I also curated Indian programming and presented Indian collections of short films at festivals around the world.
I have experienced many multitudes of roles within the industry. Journalist. Assistant editor. Managing editor. CEO and co-founder. Publisher. Mentor. Evangelist. Industry activist. Leading delegations. Building bridges. Curator. Jury member. Speaker. Moderator. Presenter. The crux is that I enjoyed every role and gave it my hundred percent.
Winning the Mover and Shaker of Indian Animation Industry award as early as 2006, moderating a panel discussion at MIPCOM as early as 2005, is a big thank you to AnimationXpress founder and mentor Anil Wanvari. I can only be eternally grateful to my destiny for my thorough, nucleus-like involvement with the animation industry.
Those years. AnimationXpress and GamingXpress, Annecy and MIFA, IAI, AITF, the Animated Feature Forum, Animation Ahoy, Axapac, all of it. That was just Act One.
As there is more intersection of the various domains in which I operate, the art domain, the technology domain, and the storytelling domain, and as I have continued to organise AI in media and entertainment conferences and meetups, there has been a lot of prep work for what comes next.
To quote one of my all-time favourite stars and his immortal line: picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost.