Indian flavour at French anime fest

Siddharth Maskeri and Vaibhav Kumaresh are on cloud nine. The duo will be leaving for Annecy in France, on June 2 on an all-sponsored trip to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to showcase their selected projects to the distributors and producers.

"Anand Gurnani from Animation Xpress (Indian-focused news portal for Animation) knew that I was working on a film and had seen some of its part. He had liked it, so when the Festival dates were out, he sent the registration and I got selected," reveals Vaibhav. Vaibhav has made a 90-minute feature, Return Of The Jungle: "We've been working on it for a while. We are funding the production as well. We hope to release it for the Indian audience soon," he avers.

Siddharth Maskeri

On the other hand, Siddharth, whose project is called The Pickle Jar Adventure, a 90-minute film about an Indian family on a world tour, is elated with the prospect of getting to network with international distributors and producers. "As soon as I became a part of the delegation of those who will visit Annecy, I received an id and password that entitled me to scan a range of works online. I also got insights into the participants, so I could create a list of people I wanted to connect with once I'm at the festival," shares Siddharth.u00a0"I'm not expecting anyone to sign a $10 million contract with me, immediately. But I'm sure this trip will initiate some kind of talk that will eventually benefit me. That's the hope," he adds.

When asked to comment on the overall animation scene in India, Siddharth reveals, "The animation market had gone down in the last few years. None of the distributors wanted to invest any money in it and people pulled out of projects. But things are slowly looking up now. However, most people are still scared of investing in animation films here because they don't know how much profits they will make."u00a0The two animators will be leaving for the festival in France on June 2.