Tata Elxsi bags Hollywood orders for animation

Tata Group's product design arm Tata Elxsi Limited has bagged orders to create animation for a Hollywood movie and three animated content series for American television channels.

The media works division of the Bangalore-based Tata created a year ago, has bagged the four orders with a delivery schedule of up to 18 months.

"These orders are long term and would strengthen our presence as a quality animation provider in the US market," Tata Elxsi general manager and head media works K Chandrashekhar told PTI.

The project details were not revealed citing non-disclosure agreements with the customers.

The Rs 132-crore (Rs 1.32 billion) company also works on Bollywood projects, besides commercials with advertising agencies.

The revenue from the division with the Hollywood and Bollywood projects is estimated to touch $5million in eighteen months, Chandrashekhar said.

He said Tata Elxsi was working on the first fully digitalised post production Bollywood movie.

Of the 100 professionals Tata Elxsi's Media Works division employs, 75 are with the TV and animation section in Bangalore and around 25 in Mumbai working on special effects for movies and TV serials.

Chandrashekhar said the company plans to increase the team to 200 in the next six months.

Tata Elxsi has a marketing office in Los Angeles, which would do creative work in future for Hollywood productions, Chandrashekhar said.

The company has worked on several movies including Freaky Chakra featuring Deepti Naval, Krishna Leela, an animated series directed by noted film-maker G V Iyer and Hollywood, a Kannada movie starring Upendra.

Tata Elxsi recorded a revenue of Rs 131.96 crore (Rs 1.32 billion) with a net profit of Rs 16.74 crore (Rs 167 million) during 2001-02.