Shri S R Patil Karnataka s minister for IT, BT inaugurated Karnataka Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (KAVGC). This grand Summit was organised by the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI, in collaboration with the government of Karnataka in Bengaluru on 28th & 29th August, 2013. Indian as well as international industry professionals from the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) industry were present at the gala event. 

Amongst those present during the inaugural ceremony was the Karnataka government s principal secretary, IT, BT and S&T I S N Prasad. During his inaugural speech, Patil said that Karnataka state government s thrust was on capacity building for the KAVGC industry and wanted to make Karnataka and Bangalore the preferred KAVGC destination.  He informed that this year, globally the estimated $153 billion KAVGC had a CAGR of 10 per cent, while in India it was growing much faster at about 22 per cent CAGR and was expected to reach five billion dollars this year. He said that a state funded post production and processing facility similar to the ones in Mumbai and Chennai would soon be inaugurated in Karnataka. 

He further said the state government was willing to work with bodies such as FICCI that had made some progress in setting up the curriculum for education courses.  Earlier, during his introductory remarks, ABAI president Biren Ghose set the tone for the summit when he said that the government and the ministry had been extremely strategic and extremely practical in taking up a call from the industry.   

During the event the second ABAI Leadership Excellence Award  was conferred to Rajiv Chikalapudi of Green Gold Animation for the creative and business force behind India s animated phenomenon Chhota Bheem. 

Chikalapudi, during his keynote address explained the long journey by his company Green Gold Animation to create and sustain a real IP success story including successes in merchandising and licensing. Chikalapudi said that a number of companies had great IP ready, but were afraid to pitching them. He exhorted these companies to go out and showcase their products, citing his own example - Chotta Bheem had been rejected twice before it was accepted by Pogo channel. 

The second keynote speaker Dreamwroks Country head Damian Froberville described the progress of the Indian Unit of Dreamworks and also gave some insights into the Asian scenario for global services. Froberville also said that the convergence between films and gaming was very much on the cards, but had not yet reached there. He said that this mattered to the players in the industry because of increased reliance on service providers with more content and shorter timelines of a product; and a lot more flexibility with VFX players doing a larger portion of game work.