*Wish list of animation industry from budget?*

*Sanjay Banerjee, CMD, Turtle Animation *

In the turbulent phase of recession where the export driven sectors,
including the IT have been worst hit, I see the animation and gaming
industry poised to be the biggest export earner. However, the animation
and gaming industry now needs to move up the value chain and hence the
industry is looking for special fiscal incentives from the government. My
wish list from the budget is that the government provides a tax holiday
for 10 years to production houses making animation and gaming properties.

The current tax incentives are only for creating animation content for
exports, which is discouraging studios to create original intellectual
property. My request to the Finance Minister is that the budget 2009 must
extend the section 10 A export tax benefit by at least 5 years so that the
nascent animation and gaming export production remains competitive and
grows at 30% plus per annum as envisaged by major trade bodies.

Further removal of service tax on domestic animation and gaming and its
domestic marketing will boost this creative industry. Also the domestic
industry for few years must be given EOU benefits to import high end
Hardware and Software at concessional duty to be competitive and also to
produce highest quality. Above all a venture Capital fund dealing
specifically for the development of Animation Industry will help the
industry grow from training to development, since it requires huge capital
to setup an animation production facility where lots of start up companies
fail to raise the amount.

Turtle Animations Pvt. Ltd.

Turtle Animations started with a dream in early 2007 and was incorporated
in New Delhi on 28 December, 2007 by highly motivated and skilled
animation artists. Mr. Sanjay Banerjee also the Chairman, with the aim to
produce quality family entertainment with computer generated animation. It
is a vision and the goal is to transform the vision into a reality and
augment the capabilities of a young dynamic team with creative talent and
technological abilities with a sound infrastructure support to produce
quality entertainment, visual imagery and a sensibility that appeals to
children, teens and adults. Turtles Animations wishes to build and
strengthen its own in-house team of creative talent and make a world class
facility which can produce world class intellectual property in animation.
The aim of Turtle Animations is to produce concepts for the global as well
as Indian markets. The content being designed has an excellent mix of
international and Indian flavor to it. While most of the concepts have a
theme with no basic nationality issues, concepts like Jathedar, an
animated movie based on Sikh history will appeal more to the domestic
market and to expatriates living in Europe and America. Some more concepts
under different stages of production at Turtle Animations are
Angelina-Joe-Lee: The concept for AJL was awarded as one of the best for
the year 2007 at NASSCOM Super Pitch by a panel consisting of
internationally renowned animation artists and movie business barons like
Frank Malmin - Def 2 Shoot, Jyotirmoy Saha - UTV, Muslim Kapasi, MD,
Excel, Smita Maroo, Vice President, Shemaroo, Ashish Kulkarni, CEO,
Anirights and Nelson Recinos, the creator of animated series Pinky and The
Brain.

As a team, we have learned through our experience that it takes lot of
effort, patient thought process and team work to develop an idea and
present it to the audience and entertain them. And the key to success is
simplicity.

Sanjay Banerjee
CMD
+91-9899799103
Turtle Animations Pvt. Ltd.
www.turtleanimations.com
www.turtleanimations.com/ajl