thecreativeindian.com

Sony Playstation plans to launch a Hanuman game for PS2, Ramayana on NDTV Imagine propels the network to top 3 status, Star Plus is about to launch a hip and cool version of Mahabharata and now Bollywood is about to embark on its first Mega 250cr Epic. Following in the footsteps of Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter, the Indan Film industry - not to be outdone of course - is about to produce its first “Mega” mythological epic - and you should have guessed it - its going to be the Ramayana! The film, scheduled for release in 2010, is being produced by UK NRI Group Pyramid Saimira Group and directed by our very own Raj Kumar Santoshi (Halla Bol, Khakee and Bhagat Singh.) Good news is that lots of new jobs coming up for CGI experts, fashion and set designers, actors, musicians, extras and marketing types. More details here.

OK. It’s 2014. Google and Amazon have amalgamated to form Googlezon - Google owns cloud computing with the Google Grid and the New York Times and all newspapers are obsolete. Then Google launches EPIC…you have to see this great short film from the Museum of Media ….EPIC.

One of India’s true green architects Manit Rastogi of MD Morphogenesis has just been profiled in the London Guardian newspaper. Rastogi’s work - which includes the hull shaped headquarters for Ernst & Young in Gurgaon - has been recognized for being “cool” in more ways than one…

In a sizzling property market, architect Manit Rastogi at MD Morphogenesis has created some of India’s coolest buildings, using recycled water, wells, wind tunnels and sun screens to chill work places and slash energy costs.
Thanks to his designs, students in a Jaipur fashion school mill around classrooms cooled to around 25 degrees Celsius (77 F) without air conditioners, while the desert bakes at nearly double that temperature outside.
And guests at the Swabhumi Hotel in Kolkata feel a breeze as they step out of a building resembling sliced mushrooms fused together, and inspired by the way trees trap wind.

And then according to the man himself…

“In India’s booming real estate market, there are not enough professionals. And because mediocrity sells, it’s easier to do that,” Rastogi said in an interview in Hong Kong. “Architects are just doing what developers want. If you start taking them down the sustainable route, people start getting nervous,” he said. “They see it as wasted expense.”….
“When they move away from the standard box, we have to tell them it’s more efficient,” Rastogi said. “Many say fine, you’ve convinced us, but how do we convince the market?”

He seems to have overcome these challenges well…read the full article here

Creativity was always considered to be the domain of Mumbai, Ahmedabad or Kolkata. But now Pune is set to join the ranks of design school centered cities with the launch of the new International Institute of Industrial Design, Gaming and Animation. According to the Business Standard:

In a bid to tap more than 80,000 jobs that would come to Indians through outsourcing in animation, gaming and industrial design sectors over next three to four years, the France-based Chamber of Commerce and Valenciennois (CCIV) has joined hands with Pune-based DSK Group to launch the International Institute of Industrial Design, Gaming and Animation in Pune.

Read the full article here…..

Business Week, the international business magazine has done an interesting article - reflecting its current fascination with India as I am sure subscriptions must be climbing here - analyzing the the state of the Indian Graphic Design industry and the growing demand for talent, ideas and education. According to the article by Eliza Williams:

For a designer or advertising creative, India is a pretty exciting place to be right now. Rapid commercial growth has prompted an unprecedented client demand for design and advertising skills, while those creating the work find themselves in the exhilarating position of being able to shape and redefine India’s new identity, both within the country and internationally. All this change has occurred rapidly, however, at a pace that is perhaps too fast for an industry, in graphic design at least, that is still finding its feet. Design is still often misunderstood as a profession, and with a dearth of decent design schools in the country, graduates are finding that they often receive their real education on the job, a position that stretches already overloaded designers even thinner. The bounteous amount of work has also led the lines between advertising and design to blur, with ad agencies, which are far more established and recognised within the country, tackling aspects of assignments more traditionally found within the design domain. And, of course, overseas networks and companies are also edging in, keen to pick up a slice of the action.

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If the only Spanish film-maker you have heard of is Almodovar (or not even him) then this new festival in Delhi will be both a treat and an education for us philistines. A Spanish Film Festival is underway as i write this at the Stein Audiotrium (India Habitat Centre) and on the 10th at the Siri Fort Auditorium.

Last week, for her birthday I treated my wife to Volver, the latest film from director Almodovar and screen goddess Penelope Cruz which was being shown at the India International Centre. We had a great time as the Spanish flair for raw emotions, melodrama, strong female characters (all the men play very minor roles in his films) and a wonderful blend of harsh realism, comedy, tragedy and surrealism.

This new festival promises even more juicy offerings including Pan’s Labyrinth (a must see), a film by Antonio Banderas (yes, the Desperado and Zorro hunk) and a host of directors I have never heard of. I will be going to as many as I can and if you happen to be in Delhi, I highly recommend a look see. Especially as its all free.

According to the Business Standard and research firm IDC, the majority of Indian Web 2.0 sites have no real business model and are struggling for both revenues and investments:

It’s a shiny, new dance floor, but how many can dance? The Web 2.0 market in India is still struggling for direction and funding, though the start-up scene in the Indian consumer space has been vibrant. Yet, the number of Web 2.0 companies focused on the enterprise or business space can be counted on one’s fingers.

A majority of players are active in areas like social networking sites (SNS), blogging, and document and multimedia sharing in the consumer space. A mere 12 of the 67 India-focused websites studied by research firm IDC have a clear enterprise or business-driven model to their operations, while 55 have a consumer focus.

Interesting article given the shear hype around the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Food for thought. The reality is that Web 2.0 technologies will become an integral part of doing business on the Web and only a few sites dedicated to exploiting the phenomenon as one will survive. Good luck!

Read the full article here.

In case you ever begin to feel that we creative types could never make it in a really big way or have a real impact on the world, there is comfort in the knowledge that India’s most pioneering and successful entrepreneur Ratan Tata trained as an Architect at Cornell before turning to revolutionize his family’s business. OK, he was given a silver spoon to start with but just look at how big he went and made it…a grand vision from steel to the Nano and Jaguar…Vision….something he picked up in design school perhaps.

While most of the residents of Chandigarh are critical at worst or ambivalent at best about their “modernist” architecture, the rest of the world has slowly been stealing its unknown treasures and making a killing at international auction houses like Christies.

Furniture designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret - both were responsible for the city’s unique plan and its official buildings and many of its residences - which normally would be considered junk in Chandigarh and sold for a few hundred rupees were fetching prices of over $8,000 in some cases.

According to an article in the International Herald Tribune:

A handful of antique dealers from around the world have become regular visitors to government junkyards in Chandigarh, the experimental modernist city 250 kilometers, or 155 miles, north of New Delhi, conceived by the architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s. They buy up disused stocks of furniture that was specially created by Corbusier’s colleagues to fit out the new city.

The disappearance of large quantities of these distinctive, ultrafunctional tables and chairs - most of them designed by Jeanneret, Le Corbusier’s cousin, for the city’s government offices, courtrooms and colleges - has begun in recent months to alarm architects and some government officials in the city.

Citizens of Chandigarh should wake up to the potential goldmine they are sitting on and begin appreciating their heritage no matter how ugly it may seem to many. The city is suddenly worth millions on the art market.

Read this fascinating article here.