The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming Comics (AVGC) sector has the potential to be a global success story for India and can transform the same way the IT revolution did, said K Madhavan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and President, The Walt Disney Company India & Star India.

Addressing industry leaders at the second edition of CII Summit FX 2021 (Global AVGC & Immersive Media Summit), Madhavan emphasized that AVGC sector can play a major role in achieving the Indian Media & Entertainment target of $100 Billion by the end of the decade.

“The question is how fast we can travel and how fast we can aim for 5 per cent global market share with an annual growth of 30 to 35 per cent,” asked Madhavan. “This is possible if the industry, government, regulator and policy makers work together with the definite agenda and we can help achieve this target.”

The global market size of AVGC sector is close to $260 billion to $275 billion, India’s market share is 1 per cent which comes to $2.5 Billion. Some of the key issues for deliberation at Summit FX 2021 included defining a roadmap for exports as a key initiative and a roadmap to leapfrog from current $2 billion to $20 billion creating global B2B opportunities.

“We should encourage convergence initiative between the creators and technology innovators. That is very critical as the technology is changing minute by minute and how are we equipped to address this. There is huge demand for VFX and animation locally and unfortunately, we are not in a position to meet the (global) requirements,” stated Madhavan.

Madhavan was optimistic of emerging job creation and pointed out that skill and labour is a key factor in the AVGC space. “We have over 400,000 engineers coming out every year from the engineering colleges. We need to train and get them into this industry.”

Madhavan also called for a relook at GST for AVGC Sector. “We are still charging GST at the rate of 18 per cent. That’s why local production studios are forced to move the service outside India and import back to India – so that they don’t have to pay GST. This is a long waiting agenda for the industry. I request the policy makers to look at this seriously.”