Navin Gupta, chief operating officer of the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), a Mumbai-based animation training institute, said the Indian animation industry is still hard-pressed for skilled manpower.

Right now, about 300,000 students are undergoing training in animation technology across India. "Most of the professionals are still at the entry level," Gupta said, adding that the way the industry is growing, even these 300,000 professionals will not be enough to handle the work load in the coming years.

"We need more than the 10,000 artistes and 2,000 programmers that we have today," he said. The future for India's animation movie sector, as these experts feel, is bright. A number of Bollywood production houses like B.R. Films, Adlabs, Pritish Nandy Communication and UTV, besides Percept Picture Company and Shemaroo, are into making animation movies.

Some independent producers, like Sajjid Nadiadwala, are also joining the fray.

UTV's recent deal with Walt Disney Studios is expected to provide a good impetus to take the Indian animation movie-making sector to a higher level. UTV already has four animation movie projects in the pipeline and a $20 million co-production deal with Overbrook, Hollywood actor Will Smith's production house.

It is also planning a $10 million co-production with Porchlight Pictures. "Right now, we have five animation projects on hand," UTV movie production Alpana Mihsra said.