Mumbai: "Hanuman", "Hanuman Returns" and now "Bal Ganesh"... the string of successful animation movies is an indication of the fast growth that the Indian animation industry is poised for after the development of some very advanced software.

"As far as the Indian animation movie production is concerned, a new phase has now started after advanced software has been developed. Technology is key to the growth of the animation sector," Ashish Kulkarni of Jadooworks, a Bangalore-based animation company, told IANS.

As of today, India has about 200 animation, 40 VFX and 35 game development studios, but the country needs more workstations to make optimal use of the potential that the industry has.

A.K. Madhavan, of Crest Animation Studios, says: "At Crest, we get trainers from the US and Canada to train our staff and help them understand the current trends in animation in the world market. This ensures that the output is on a par with the acceptable levels for international standards, especially Hollywood," he said.

Both Kulkarni and Madhavan agreed that given the demands, animation movie making will soon emerge as a self-sufficient industry and attain a full-ledged stature.

The Indian animation movie production, however, had a rather shaky start. In 1984, when the renowned artiste Ram Mohan wanted to make an animation movie on the Indian epic Ramayana in collaboration with the Japanese filmmaker Yogo Sako, he was not given permission by the government to go ahead.

The government said that the sanctity of the epic would be lost if a "cartoon film" was made on it. Finally, Mohan had to go to Japan to make it as he and Sako were determined to present the Ramayana as an animation series.

The movie, "Ramayan," executed under Mohan's leadership, created a revolution in the international market in that it made the Western world aware for the first time of talent available in India to make animation movies.

India saw an outsourcing boom subsequently. But, due to the high cost involved, together with shortage of manpower and technology, animation movie making stagnated after "Ramayan" was released.

Although animation studios sprang up in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram, they were preoccupied with outsourcing work.

Some of them did create story-based animated work, but those were meant only for the advertising commercials. It was only since 2000 that corporate houses set their sights on producing animation movies.

UTV was the first corporate entity to plan animated versions of India Book House's popular "Amar Chitra Katha" series in the 1990s. But the project did not get off the ground. A decade later Percept Picture Company (PPC) brought to India its Hanuman series of animation features - "Hanuman" and "Hanuman Returns."

Made on a budget of about Rs.15 million, PPC's first animation movie "Hanuman" went on to earn Rs.70 million for the corporate entity. PPC followed it up with "Hanuman Returns".