Movie and TV Productions Now Rely Heavily on the AVGC industry

The burgeoning AVGC sector requires a skilled workforce for a strong, sustainable and balanced growth. In order for India to become a dominant player in the AVGC sector globally, the youth of the country would need to be trained in the creative technologies of tomorrow. CB Arun Kumar, Academic Director, EDGE Metaversity, foregrounds the need for bridging the current skills gap through world-class short-term courses in animation, visual effects, game design and virtual production. Excerpts on an interview:

1. The announcement of AVGC Task Force in the Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has turned the spotlight on the sector’s potential for creating employment. Do you foresee India becoming the content creation factory of the world?

India is already one of the biggest content producers in the world by volume. We make over 1800 movies each year and operate more than 900 TV channels. All these productions now heavily rely on the AVGC Industry, and the percentage of AVGC contribution to India’s media and entertainment Industry is expected to grow exponentially over the next five years. In addition to this the AVGC Industry is heavily invested in International productions and co-productions with VFX in films such as the Avengers and Star Wars series being produced here in India.

The Finance Minister in her Budget speech was focussing on the fact that new international trends such as the development of the metaverse will add to the existing demand from the Media & Entertainment sector creating new challenges in skills development that need to be urgently addressed by the task force.

2. How can we build the intellectual capital required for the AVGC industry?

We can develop and grow the intellectual capital of the AVGC sector by ensuring that the latest skills and workflows are imparted to students and that the existing manpower in the Industry is re-trained to meet the latest industry requirements.

3. Do you perceive a need to introduce children to these skills at an early age in schools, given that the industry currently needs about 20-25 lakh people globally?

The Indian education system for a long time has focussed on the 3Rs of education. We need to go beyond this and introduce AVGC courses to school students if we are to ensure that we develop a culture steeped in Visual Technologies much like Japan and South Korea.

4. What impact is Metaverse expected to have on the AVGC industry?

It’s expected that the development of the Metaverse and similar technologies by players like Nvidia (Omniverse), Microsoft, Google and Apple will blast the AVGC industry to new heights powering the next generation of the Internet revolution creating a massive employment potential for skilled content creators.