We all grew up watching cartoons and if you think that now you are too old to watch them, you are utterly wrong. Whether you believe it or not, cartoons are all around you in newspapers, posters, animations, movies, comics, games, etc. and we all enjoy them. There are many popular cartoon series in the form of animations and shows.
To have a successful growth of a country’s animation industry, we need to have an interesting story to adapt, good animators and animation studio, good advertising, a fairly invested budget, and also audience support.
Countries like Japan and USA are successful in their animation industry because they have all these requirements and also, they make their shows easily available by telecasting them on TV.
Why doesn’t it happen to the Indian animation industry? We have a film industry like Bollywood and the Indian population is so huge that there can’t be a lack of audience. So where is it lacking behind?
The one major obstacle for the animation to take off in India is the lack of original, home-grown characters. The Indian animation market started a decade ago for services that came from the West. When they started the animation industry here, they primarily looked at mythological concepts as compared to the West where they’ve created characters like Spiderman and Batman. India also has some amazing superhero comics like Devi, Snake women, Doga, Nagraj, Chakra, if the Indian animation industry uses these stories, it could be a superhit.
Also, Indian cartoons don’t have the kind of villains that are loved and hated at the same time. Brutus from Popeye the sailor man, mojo JoJo from Power puff girls, team rocket from Pokémon are some good examples of loved villains.
The second obstacle is a fixed budget. India has many animation studios and great animators but due to a fixed budget, they cannot produce a good animation video. Bollywood also tried to make Indian animation famous by using big celebrities or movie stars as voice actors, for example, Mahabharata but half of their budget went to those actors because of which they can’t give much effort to the animation.
Talking about animation for teenagers, the Indian animation industry doesn’t provide any mature storyline. Indian cartoons like Chhota Bheema, Mighty Raju, Motu Patlu might have been able to gain the interest of little kids but can’t interest the teenagers. There are no shows made specifically for teenagers. These cartoons lack creativity, creators simply take characters from Hindu mythology and religion and present them differently. Cartoons like Baal Ganesh, Hanuman are some examples. The biggest reason behind this is the Indian Censor board. Many times, the Indian censor board doesn’t allow telecasting mature storylines in animation.
The Japanese cartoons cater to every age group. Shinchan, Doraemon, Pokémon, Japanese mangas are loved by kids, teens, and young people. We all love Shin Chan no matter what your age is. The fun realistic stories lead to the addiction of mangas. They provide us with a wide range of genres that includes adventure, comedy, romance, science fiction, etc. Their stories have ups and downs which makes the audience thrilled. So that is how Japanese anime dominates in the cartoon world.
Animation is such a powerful medium of art that it has become a billion-dollar industry in the last few years and will continue to grow. As an audience, we need to break this stereotype of animation being the kid’s stuff and make an effort to bring this art into the mainstream. We need to start respecting the Indian Artists that are trying to voice out their stories through animation. Our support is needed for the start!
