This book explores Indian animation, a sector in rapid transition. Major studios have built international reputations through outsourcing and co-production, while smaller studios and independent filmmakers increasingly create original content for TV, streaming platforms and festivals. Alongside these visible transformations in the industry, artisanal and ethnographic animation have also flourished. India Animated: Essays on Contemporary Practice examines key ways in which practices and preoccupations in India are shifting. Distinctive postcolonial approaches are the focus of this volume, which foregrounds the inventive animation works of filmmakers in recent decades. Substantial essays consider the conception, production and marketing of animated works, alongside a selection of interviews that provide a vivid, granular sense of creative processes. Indian animation remains largely overlooked in both public discourse and scholarly research. This volume addresses that absence by examining the region's pluriform practices and their broader implications for animation studies.

The first book-length study of Indian animation in the English language Brings together scholarship on film analysis, film history, and production culture, including interviews with animators Addresses timely topics such as animated documentary, streaming media, transnational production, and national identity

Autorentext

Timothy Jones is Associate Professor of Media Arts and Director of the Academic Media Center at Robert Morris University, USA. His work on animation, education, and industry appears in journals such as Animation Practice , Process & P*roduction , Animation Studies and Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal , as well as in the edited collections Reconceptualizing Film Policies (2018) and Animation and Advertising (2019). Tim contributes regularly to Animation Studies 2.0 , and co-hosts the podcast Spirited Animation* .

Anitha Balachandran is a filmmaker, researcher and adjunct professor of animation at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India. Her work engages with visual culture, media history, and the intersections of illustration, image-making, and animation within transcultural contexts. Anitha's writing has been published in the Journal of Illustration , Imago: Studi di cinema e media , Animation Practice, Process & Production , Animation Studies 2.0, and the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Animation Studies .

Klappentext

From before the nation building animations of Films Division to the child god franchises of post-liberalization India, this book introduces global readers for the first time to the old and new revolutions shaping India's varied animation sector. As the editors note, domestic animation has been treated as the 'proverbial poor cousin' of the nation's booming live action industry and Western imports. Drawing together practitioners, scholars, and animators from around the world, this pioneering anthology finally sets the record straight, revealing the breadth, depth and rich diversity of Indian animation. Bravo!
- Dr. Priya Jaikumar , Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

This volume brings sustained scholarly attention to the evolving and often underrepresented field of Indian Animation. Situating it within postcolonial frameworks, contributors trace key transitions, from outsourced production for global studios to independent, artisanal and ethnographic practices. Through critical essays and practitioner interviews, the collection explores wide-ranging processes of creation and circulation, highlighting the sector's exciting heterogeneity and its significance for rethinking the parameters of animation studies.

Timothy Jones is Associate Professor of Media Arts and Director of the Academic Media Center at Robert Morris University, USA. His work on animation, education, and industry appears in journals such as Animation Practice , Process & P*roduction , Animation Studies and Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal , as well as in the edited collections Reconceptualizing Film Policies (2018) and Animation and Advertising (2019). Tim contributes regularly to Animation Studies 2.0 , and co-hosts the podcast Spirited Animation* .

Anitha Balachandran is a filmmaker, researcher and adjunct professor of animation at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India. Her work engages with visual culture, media history, and the intersections of illustration, image-making, and animation within transcultural contexts. Anitha's writing has been published in the Journal of Illustration , Imago: Studi di cinema e media , Animation Practice, Process & Production , Animation Studies 2.0, and the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Animation Studies .

Inhalt

Chapter 01: Introduction to India Animated.- Part I: Contextualizing the Contemporary.- Chapter 02: Dreams of Silly Storks and Foxes: Indian Animation before Independence.- Chapter 03: Meena, a girl from my village: symbol of empowerment since the 90s.- Part II: Diversifying Practices Today.- Chapter 04: Animating Voices: a place for collaborative storytelling.- Chapter 05: Designing Native Narratives: Nonfiction Animation Claims in Indian Documentary.- Chapter 06: Tailing the Body of Hanuman: Mythological Animation and the Transnational Imagination.- Chapter 07: Ganesha Is My Friend and Krisha is a Fan: 'Hindu Boy-Gods' Mirroring of Indian Middle Class Identity in Hindi Mythological Composite Films.- Chapter 08: Getting Over the Breakout Feature: Evolving Animation Festival and Streaming Ecologies.- Chapter 09: Reimagining Gender and Identity: The Animated Works of Gitanjali Rao.- Part III: Interviews with Practitioners.- Chapter 10: Immersive Animation and Indian Gods: An Interview with Charuvi Agrawal.- Chapter 11: Be Global, but be Original, Go Back to Where You Come From: An Interview with Ishu Patel.- Chapter 12: An Interview with Vaibhav Kumaresh.