By-line on Animation Aspiration by Shajan Samuel Sr. Vice President MAAC(India)

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Posted By : Mukesh Dube At 27-04-2013 19:28:00

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Tags : Shajan Samuel MAAC

The first impression you get on meeting Aditya Prabhu is that of any other young animation aspirant, hobnobbing at one of the many Animation Institutes in India, but when you start speaking to him, his shy, unassuming and reticent nature gives away, in to a more confident, precocious young man . I was glad to meet up with Aditya, at Mangalore where he had come for a short visit to catch up on family time. For a country which started its love for animation with the short documentary movie EK Anek, in 1974, there have been very few Indians who have made it big at such a short age in the global arena. Aditya is one of them, his success is truly inspirational for youngsters who have dreams in their eyes, and are willing to push the envelope. Aditya age 26 , works as a Lighting artist for the world’s biggest Animation Production company Dream works , the company which has made iconic movies like Madagascar, kung fu panda , Shrek , to name a few . Aditya was one of the very few Indian’s Probably 10 in all, out of the approximate 1800 people who worked for the movie “Rise of the Guardians “ . He is based out of the Dream Works studio in San Francisco, for his age he displays amazing, maturity and confidence, he is an epitome of how a young aspirant should mould himself/herself to break the barriers and challenge the Status Quo.

A country with more than 1.2 billion people can do with a few more Aditya’s. This story while inspirational in nature also exposes India’s biggest education crisis as with low entry gates in vocational training the only way to get optimum output is to tighten the exit gate. This has to be orchestrated by a slew of dial tone processes , like high quality faculty , periodic T3 training for the faculty , entry level Assessments for students to gauge input , assignments , projects ,periodic exams , studio visits , Guest sessions , portfolio review , WebEx training sessions through master/star faculties and a focus on soft skills .

Most of today’s youth who sign up for a course feel they are sitting on the nose of a rocket, waiting to take off. Showing up for classes is not enough , one needs to practice , be passionate and have a clear focus on their goals , be moving out of geographies where they grew up , they need to migrate to unfamiliar terrain and unknown people and be prepared to throw themselves in to the wild wicked sea without a safety jacket , “ You have to drown many a times to swim safely to the bank “ it is this experience which will harden you and help you negotiate life and its vagaries. College teaches you to jump through a thousand scholastic hoops, but the 5 toughest decisions a student makes in their life is never taught in any college , whom to make friend with , whom to love , whom to hate ,whom to marry and how to control your impulse. Most people (policy makers, parents, individuals, etc) intuitively agree that education is a journey to a better life, but yet in India how are far a child will go in life, depend on two things, whether you have chosen your Parents wisely and your Pin Code ‘it’s called the Ovarian lottery . Aditya did chose his Parents and Pin code wisely, but had the courage to pursue his dreams, was ready to reason out with his Dad that the family business didn’t excite him & was clear of his goals very early in his life . His Portfolio at SCAD (Savannah College of design) was selected amongst 250 other portfolios by Dream works. One of the common Population tag lines of 1990’s “Ek ke Baad Abi Nahin and do ke baad kabhi nahin “has now become India’s biggest strength , “ Human Capital “.

India adds 12 million people to its labour force every year one out of four people joining the global work force is an India ,means we need more skilled people to be productive from day one , every one can’t become a Aditya , we need good loaders , sales man , carpenters and electricians as well . But In an opportunity of a life time India throws open a myriad of possibilities, it is left to us to decide how far we want to go.

Article by - Mr. Shajan Samuel Sr. Vice President MAAC (India)

Image Source -www.shajansamuel.com