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Temi Tea Garden is the only organic tea garden situated in South Sikkim. Cherry blossoms make this fairy land more mythical than that meets the eye. Temi is spread over 440 acres of land into a sprawling tea plantation. Here in the land of towering mountains, thick pines and oak, Temi rests on an exquisite stretch on gentle slopes on loamy soil. It’s just perfect to grow tea. Then the first Animation Hub came into being in this land of dreams.

In a world that’s turning rapidly digital and information is coming in by the hordes, brands and their stories are always in the danger of two things: Change and Clutter. In this ever-changing scenario of things, it’s pertinent to keep up and stay relevant everyday. But that’s not all. We should also be able to rise above the digital chaos and the everyday information explosion. 

Understanding this, the indomitable erstwhile MD Ms. Mrinalini Shrivastava along with Dr. Rahul Banerjee walked upon the idea of creating a hub (at Temi) that can make your brand story a researched, relevant and timely one. If one thinks that that a project, product or entrepreneurial initiative needs a larger story, The TemiCreative Hub has a network of professionals who can make that happen. An initiative to bring the experts together to work in collaboration, the hub will integrate various creative practitioners to work together to address your brand’s unique needs. From packaging experts, to writers, designers, digital content creators and brand ideators, the hub has all the solution-finders. The hub also aims to push young creative aspirants towards excellence.

The Animation Hub today boasts of facilities like info-graphics, print ads, digital ads, film making, motion graphics, photography, designing, architectural practice, presentation, brand identity, package design, animation, storyboarding, scriptwriting, content creation, social media creative, digital illustration, recording and post production.

How did it come into being?

Tireless ideation and administrative action by Ms. Mrinalini set into motion action points. The Ministry of MSME was approached with a sense of conviction while an exhaustive project report on was drafted by a team under the project management leadership of Dr. Rahul Banerjee with overall guidance from MD Ms. Mrinalini.

Financial Assistance to under Specially Designed Project in ‘Other Activities’, component under Scheme Promotion of MSMEs in NER and Sikkim was sought for. Total project sanctioned for this dream hub amounted to `9 crore. It’s a maiden and a watershed achievement that calls for global recognition. 

Central share as per the sanction order 6.4 crore, state share as per the sanction order 2 crore , first instalment 260 (centre) and 92 lakh (state) in kind in terms of land and room construction for first phase was already given and since completed. Second instalment of 200 lakh for phase two for editing space creation is requested where the state share of 72 lakh is being provided which was given in a consolidated commitment on July 6, 2019 when the project was envisaged. The balance Sanction has since been released by MSME while this piece goes for printing.

The Proposal

The proposal says to create infrastructure developing an animation film cluster in Sikkim. The process of learning animation film making is a very intensive and extensive program and has to be designed according to the profiles of the trainees.

Animation film industry

The global animation industry largely lies in Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea wherein US is the leader. Japan is a larger exporter of animation content with a structured industry chain and mature operating mechanism.

South Korea is second to the US and Japan with respect to the output value of the animation industry. Animation works on the principle of persistence of vision. There exist three different types of animations like traditional cell animation, stop motion animation and computer animation.

Indian market

The animation industry in India was estimated to be at $460 million in 2008 as per a report by NASSCOM. The Indian animation sector increased to $9500 million in 2009. Currently, activities at the production stage form a major portion of outsourcing, with post-production accounting for a small share. The share of post-production activities is expected to increase in future.

There is a lot of animation used in the media today for advertisement, gaming, mobile/computer applications besides the animation films which are designed abroad but produced in India. Animation and VFX are used widely in many areas like TV, films, ads, medicine, training and education, e-learning, legal and insurance, 3D visualisation, architecture, etc. Another interesting area in this industry is the creation and design of games for PC, internet, mobile, gaming consoles (Playstation/ Xbox). Because of the industry is growing so fast, there is a constant demand for skilled professionals from both, Indian studios as well as for internationally outsourced projects.

According to FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Report, by 2020, the animation and VFX industry in india will be worth `11360 crore.

Sikkim and its take away

The younger generation in Sikkim today are getting attracted to jobs in the creative sector in Sikkim. Some of them have done short courses of skill development at animation software training institutes like NIIT, MAAC etc. and then there are others who have done professional courses in Animation from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and are looking for avenues to start entrepreneurship in Sikkim. There are those who don’t have an idea of the animation industry due to lack of awareness programmes and accessibility. 

The Animation Hub thus is a fore runner and prognostic to more promises and fulfilment thereof for the youth of Sikkim in the days to come - a first of its kind in north east and the first ever in the last 50 years.