Day 1 : 23rd August

PETER TAN
Peter Tan celebrates his fifth year in Lucasfilm Singapore this 2012. He started as animator for The Clone Wars team in 2007, and was subsequently promoted to senior animator. He transferred to ILM Singapore in 2009 to work on Rango, which recently won Best Animated Feature at the 84th Academy Awards®. At Lucasfilm, he worked on seasons 1 and 2 of the hit CG Animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and on visual effects for Transformers: Dark of the Moon; Transformers: The Ride and The Avengers. He graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic in 1999 with a Diploma in Digital Design specializing in Animation. He narrates that although he studied animation, he only started working as an animator four years after he finished school. His first job was with Silicon Illusions as lighting artist, and then as motion editor. He was then based in New Zealand for a year-and-a-half, working at Weta Productions as compositor for the TV program Jane and the Dragon. When he returned to Singapore, he taught a part-time course on Intro to 3D at Nanyang Polytechnic before joining Lucasfilm.

ZAMEER HUSSAIN
Zameer Hussain has been in the movie industry for more than a decade, and has his name credited in 120 feature films. Some of the more recent movies he has been involved with include The Avengers, Battleship, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Rango. Having graduated with a Masters in Advertising from The American College in Madurai, India, Zameer then started his career at Pentamedia Graphics. There, he ?worked on bluescreen keying, CG compositing, and matte paintings. He later moved on to other animation studios, where he produced quality animation sequences with complex and difficult shots. He has always maintained a leadership role, guiding large teams of artists and supervising shots before final delivery. With his rich experience in VFX and vast knowledge on the various aspects of a VFX pipeline, Zameer has also been a guest lecturer for several universities and colleges. Zameer joined Industrial Light & Magic Singapore as a Senior Digital Artist in September 2009. Here, he works on a wide range of shots which have varying levels of complexity, and has much to share and offer to ILM. He played a very supportive role as well during the production of Rango, serving as the Compositing mentor for Lighting TDs, and is an innovative and creative problem- solver and leader.

AMOL GURWARA
He is the Senior Development Director (APAC) – Electronic Arts Interactive. He joined EA in March 2007 as Head of Operations and has spearheaded the growth of the India studio from a headcount of 70 to over 700 in a span of 4 years, developing mobile and social games on various platforms including feature phone, iOS, Android, Facebook and Windows. Additionally, he is also responsible for the operations in the China and Korea studios of EA Mobile. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and Director of Operations at Aurona Technologies, where he set up managed a team of 100+ game programmers, software engineers and game artists. Amol has several years experience in interactive media, with a track record in establishing delivery capabilities and processes, to deliver to global quality standards. Before co-founding Aurona, he was at Recreate Solutions Limited, UK, handling client interaction across UK. Prior to that, he was Head of Rich Media Services at Sriven Multitech Limited, an outsourced animation production company. Amol holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Communications from MICA (Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad) and a Bachelors Degree in Electronics Technology from Loyola Academy, Secunderabad.

SANATH P C
Firefly is a feature-grade creative agency and visual effects production house based in Hyderabad, India. Three alumni of National Institute of Design, Phani Eggone, Sanath PC and Nagesh HN – creative directors by instinct and adventurous entrepreneurs by choice – founded it in 2002. Since then, Firefly’s multiple award-winning work has been the mainstay of major visual effects-driven blockbusters in Telugu / Tamil cinema such as Magadheera, Robot, Anaganaga O Dheerudu, Anji, Anniyan and Arundhati.

BHARAT ZENDE
He is the Head of Online Partnerships, YouTube India & SE Asia, he manages online partnerships and acquisitions’ for original creators for YouTube in India and South East Asia. Prior to joining YouTube, Bharat spent 3+ years at Star India (P) Ltd, where he was Regional Manager and was involved in Star India’s digital ad sales strategy and operations. He has worked in the Internet media space for a number of years, with some of India’s leading media companies, including The Times of India and NDTV. He has a strong background in digital advertising and monetizing entertainment content on the Internet and mobile space. Bharat is a graduate from SIES College Mumbai and has a Master of Management studies specializing in Marketing from University of Mumbai. Bharat lives in Mumbai and operates out of Google’s Mumbai office.

Day 2 : 24th August

RAJAT OJHA
The Managing Director of The Awesome Game Studio (TAGS), with over 17 years of industry experience, he has worked on over 15 games so far across all possible gaming platforms like PS2, PS3, XBOX 1, Nitnendo DS, iOS, Android, Brew, Palm, Windows Phone, Web and PC. An avid gamer himself, Rajat is a certified Project Management Professional with specialization in Risk Management from USA. He is an active speaker at NASSCOM, Anifest India, IIT, ASIFA India, ABAI and at various conferences. Rajat created India’s first freeware game in 1994 and repeated history by making India’s first global PS3 game. He has 9+ years of experience in running divisions and organizations.

RANA PRATAP SEN
Creative. Rana loves animation and photography and is always interested in the behind-the-scenes process. He is currently pursuing the dream of making his own film and is studying animation film design (post-graduate) at the National ??Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

V S PRABHAKAR
Engineer / Self made artist. VVS is currently working with MAAC South-Ext as a Pre-production head. His students have won GOLD in “Delhi CG animation awards 2012” for “Best stop-motion film”. Best 3D animation short film GOLD, at 24FPS awards 2011 for “The Pink Bangles”. VVS excels in Stop-motion animation, Set & Armature design, Digital Sculpting, Character art and design as well as Storyboarding.

GIRISH GOPALAKRISHNAN
3rd year industrial design student at DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore. He is passionate about doing eco friendly designs for which the Simple Light Box has been his first great step.

BEN COWELL THOMAS
CG / VFX Supervisor – Prime Focus Mumbai, has over 10 years industry experience creating award winning commercials and short films across a wide variety of media including CG, live action, stop-motion and interactive.His specialties include VFX Supervision, Production Planning, lighting, onset supervision, Art Direction, Layout and Previz. Ben has been the Head of Studio at Nexus Productions, London working on many award winning projects including those for Honda, Sony, Intel and Coca Cola. He has been a Senior 3d Artist at Condor Post and at Ambience Entertainment. He has been a lecturer of 3d animation and visual effects at Temasek Polytechnic and while at Singapore was also the director for the Singapore Animation Festival. Ben holds a BA (Hons) degree in Computer Visualisation and Animation from Bournemouth University.

PROSENJIT GANGULY
Animation Designer, Screenwriter and Mentor. PJ as he is fondly called is a multi award winning director. He firmly believes, that our most significant learnings come from children under the age of eight. PJ has been a Director of Special Projects at Toonz Trivandrum where he directed the creation of original Animation Properties for Television, wrote production screenplays for episodic animation series and tv feature films, directed the production of Channel IDs, TVCs and short films, conducted several workshops and seminars on animation academics and led the National level Children’s Animation Workshop, creating 8 short animated films (screened in over 20 international festivals). He also designed and directed the production of online games. PJ is an Associate Faculty Member at the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad.

ROTO SHAH
Composer. He has composed music for Short Films, Ads, Channel I-dents, promos,and branding, Film Production Logos, Documentaries, Radio Jingles et al. He has also programmed songs and background scores for the accomplished film maker Mr. Viju Shah.

Day 3 : 25th August

E SURESH
Founder and Creative Director, Studio Eeksaurus, Mumbai. He has led a team for over a decade that has created animation films in 2D, 3D and pioneered Clay/Stop motion in advertising films in India. With his firm belief in the design process for solutions, Suresh has been instrumental in creating a market for animated ad films by going beyond the Disney way of storytelling and technique that was popular then in India. His path breaking exploration of new styles to tell things differently yet effectively is perhaps the reason for an audience and a whole new industry that heralds an exciting phase of Indian animation. A diverse and huge portfolio of over 300 films – each with a unique look that has evolved by the way of design to assume it’s different style. Suresh has formal training in Carnatic music and works closely with musicians for the sound and music in all his films, as he believes sound and music is of as much essence as is the visual narrative. He has been on the jury of the prestigious ‘Clio Awards’ from 2007 till date in the ‘technique in animation and visual effects’ categories and has also been part of the jury panel for Asia Image Apollo Awards, Singapore for 3 consecutive years.

RAJIV CHILAKA
Founder & Managing Director of Green Gold Animation Pvt. Ltd. Rajiv is the creator, director and producer of many of India’s most popular children’s animated properties, such as Chhota Bheem, Krishna Balram & Chorr Police. Leaving behind a highly lucrative software career, he founded Green Gold Animation in 2001 and over the last decade has produced over 200 episodes of animation content. Rajiv has also started a Licensing & Merchandising company with a distribution network across India.

VIKRAM VETURI
Animation Director at Reliance Animation, Pune. Vikram has extensive experience as an animation director having previously worked at Anirights Infomedia, India Heritage, Jadooworks to name a few companies. He holds a diploma in Animation from ZICA and has a BA in Psychology from Nizam College. He is the director of the recently released an animated feature – ‘Krishna aur Kans’.

KIREET KHURANA
Director, Climb Media (I) Pvt Ltd, Animation Editor – Studio Systems Magazine, Chief Creative Officer – Frameboxx Animation and Visual Effects. He is a winner of 5 President’s National Awards, 3 Int’l awards besides many others. A conceptualiser, Co-writer & Director of “Toonpur Ka Superrhero” – India’s 1st live-action and 3D animation combination feature film. He directed and Co-produced award-winning short films for the National Film Board of Canada, UNICEF International (1995-97), He was the Creator, Director, and wrote the Screenplay of the award-winning series “Adventures of Chhota Birbal” (2002), India’s 1st animation character to be licenced. He has been a jury member for the President’s National Awards (2007), Mumbai Int’l Film Festival (2007), CNBC Golden Cursor Awards (2008), Sony-Animax Awards (2007), Indian Documentary Producers Association (2003), 24FPS & others. He graduated with High Honors from Sheridan College Canada and is also one of the fouder members and the first Honorary Secretary of The Animation Society of India.

CHETAN DESAI
Creative Director, Filmmaker, Animation. He holds a Bsc in Biology from the University of Mumbai. Chetan directed the 3d cgi feature ‘Ramayana the Epic’ and from 2007 to 2010 he was the Chief Creative Officer and studio head of Maya Entertainment Limited. Chetan specialises in Film Making, Media and Animation. Operations, startups and turnarounds, international client engagement, commercial and contract negotiations, project planning and management.

NISHIT TAKIA
Co-owner, Krayon Pictures Private Limited. A Masters degree in Computer Science from US, Nishit has over 27 years of experience in software, marketing, and business development. He has contributed as an editor of India’s largest software weekly, and currently is a co-owner of this fast emerging state of the art an animation studio. Nishit specialises in writing, software and business development. Krayon Pictures is soon releasing its maiden stereoscopic 3d cgi feature ‘Delhi Safari’.

‘MAD MAX’ MADHAVAN
Chief Executive Officer of India Operations of Crest Animation Studios Ltd. since April 1, 2004. Mad Max as he is foldly called has been Head of International Business division of Crest Animation Studios Ltd. since January 1, 2003. He serves as a Director of Crest Communication (Singapore) Pte Ltd. and Crest Films (india) Limited. Max holds a Masters Degree in Marketing Management.

MOHAMMAD NOR KHALID ‘LAT’
Datuk Mohd Nor Khalid is a well known cartoonist in Malaysia. Also known as Lat, many of his cartoons appear in the editorial pages of the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times. His first book Kampung Boy, an autobiography of his life was published in 1979 and sold thousands of copies within three months. His cartoons have been published in several cartoon books in Malaysia. Lat has been honored with the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize ( Arts and Culture Prize ).

K V SRIDHAR
National Creative Director – Leo Burnett India. From humble beginnings as a bollywood film billboard painter to his current position as the Creative head of one of the largest and most awarded agencies in India, he has seen it all and today is widely respected as a creative leader in the Indian Ad-world. Under his creative leadership, Leo Burnett India went on to win agency of the year in the Leo Burnett global network, twice. Continuing the Agency’s superb show at the Cannes the agency has won 12 lions, in the past two years. While over the decade, the Indian office has done splendidly by wining over 328 awards at major award shows including the Cannes, One Show, D&AD and Clio. Pops, as he is popularly known, is credited with the emergence of Leo Burnett as a creative powerhouse in India. Creativity magazine ranks Leo Burnett India among top 20 creative agencies in the world. Pops has been on many Indian & International award juries. Back in 2006-07 he was nominated for the ‘Teacher’s Achievement Awards’. In 2008, he was recognized by the United Nations for his contributions made against Gender bias in Media & Advertising. In July 2009, Pops was honoured with the New York ?Festivals Creative Achievement Award and in November of 2010 he was cited with the 2010 creative of the year (Indian Subcontinent) award by Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Agency of the Year awards.