Dippesh Jain, Business Development Manager – Sony Pictures Entertainment

Mr. Dippesh Jain began his career as Administrator of Marketing and Business Development at Graphiti Multi-Media and Graphiti School of Animation in the Mumbai Area, India. He received his education at N.L. Dalmia Insititute of Management Studies and Research and M L Dahanukar College of Commerce. He was head of Content Selling & Distribution at Graphiti Multimedia Pvt Ltd , Marketing Manager at Graphiti Multimedia Pvt Ltd. , and Brand Manager at Graphiti School of Animation. Dippesh is now the New Business Development Manager - Digital at Sony Pictures Entertainment . At Sony Pictures Entertainment, he handles content and brand associations, brand tie ups and explores new business opportunities on digital formats.

CG Today : Mr. Dippesh, it is a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you very much for making time for this interview.

Dippesh : Pleasure to connect to you and your team, it’s indeed fun to talk to you.

CG Today : In your position as Business Development Manager for Sony Pictures Entertainment, tell us about releasing Michael Jackson’s This Is It in India.

Dippesh : Michael Jackson’s THS IS IT was my first Launch in Sony, was really excited as that was the last live footage of MJ, we could see or capture, also a compilation of his collection. Was really excited to launch this documentary for Home Entertainment, it was more promoted as collectors copy with various add-ons like Exclusive MJ Posters, Free MJ T-shirts, Bundle of MJ Live Shows etc.

After MJ, we got to launch and release some of the biggest blockbusters like 2012, Karate Kid, Bounty Hunter.

CG Today : You said, “The DVD (This Is It) will be packed with exclusive interviews, backstage footage, exclusive footage, live concert footage, exclusive picture of MJ, merchandised T-shirts etc. As it is the last sovereign of MJ, we want to give the consumers a personalized feel.” Was the release had the success you hoped for?

Dippesh : MJ has a loyal fan base and 'This Is It' been the last documentary on him, indeed the response was immense. This been the collector copy and not easily available content on MJ’s backstage practice sessions, testimony on him and key people sharing their experiences working with him made a complete package for people to buy and store this DVD.

During his death anniversary, we have released exclusive Steel Book packing and exclusive MJ posters for MJ Fans. Various Packs with add-ons were released for people to have enough choice to pick up these DVD’s. It was tremendous.

CG Today : You want to bring more Sony movies for children into the Indian market. What are your plans for making this happen?

Dippesh : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) has a proven track record of movie releases in India, been the best and biggest movie production and distribution company, we have seen great success stories in Kids Genre, movies like Spiderman, Open Season, Surf’s Up have been accepted brilliantly in retail; Kids and parents both of them buy out such movie DVD’s

Seeing this trend, we have also noted, children’s movie are ageless and are always in demand. These content are considered evergreen and recession proof. Parents don’t think twice to buy out a good content for their children’s and if the content is good backed up with a respected company, the confidence of buyer (parents) is much higher.

We have also released baby / toddlers content, we have got two world’s best seller kids movie brands in India. So Smart and Brainy baby, both these content have proven track records in western counterparts and are now made available in India by SPHE. Many more animation and kids / babies content will be released in India during this year.

CG Today : Can you share with us some of your branding ideas that have been successful as part of your brand tie-ups for Sony?

Dippesh : There were many strategically and quite successful brand tie-ups and promotional ideas there have been done in recent past. The latest one is Movie association with Denver Deo’s. The new release BOUNTY HUNTER, which was themed over TAKE CONTROL, was embedded with Denver Deo’s highlighting the brand positioning of Denver of TAKE CONTROL.

Another example, I would like to quote is on ITC Colour Crew Brand and So Smart Kids Series, a series based for kids and babies to for early learning, we bundled colour-pencils and crayons.

Currently we are working on a project with another baby care giant, that association is a complete win-win for us. Apart from that, we have already done work with Samsung, Dell, Onida, Nestle, Kelloggs, Fosters, RBS Bank, and many more...

CG Today : Do you think that as Western films and television gain wider distribution in India itself, that Bollywood films feel pressured to attain the same production levels, especially in areas such as action and special effects?

Dippesh : Good content is always appreciated, and when a good story line with advanced technological support and professional skills are combined, the product has to be good, and sure of success. Bollywood has all the talent in itself, it is just not yet unleashed, however, there are many film makers and professional artists who are creating wonderful and international quality content.

CG Today : We were reading an article online in The Epoch Times that mentioned that English dubbed movies were beginning to be taken seriously by Indian movie audiences since it dropped in popularity and was somewhat revived in the 90‘s. Sony’s movie 2012 was dubbed. Do you think this is something Sony will begin to do more and more in the future?

Dippesh : Yes, dubbs do sell in India, and India has a market for almost anything, even today, most of the films are dubbed at least in 3 languages apart from English. Also on Home Entertainment, we are seeing a huge rise in dubbed content. However, we are also seeing buyers of original English content also rising.

CG Today : Graphiti School of Animation, where you worked for two years, is said to be the brain-child of Ram Mohan, the “Father of Indian Animation”. Can you tell us more about Mr. Ram Mohan?

Dippesh : Ram Mohan, addressed as Father of Indian Animation, a man whose works speaks more than himself, at the age of 78, he is younger than all of us, an epitome of Ideas and full of energy, even today you will see him creating new characters and animation content. He is focused on giving life to inanimate objects day-in and out. The moment you start interacting with him, you would see ideas just floating. A man with no ego’s and boundaries, in his own words, this is the age to learn.

CG Today : The Graphiti School offers courses in 3-D animation, called the G-Cat courses. Can you please brief the training methodology?

Dippesh : Graphiti School, the brainchild of Ram Mohan, is completely focused on teaching 3D animation and training students not just software’s or tools, but the concepts and basics of animation. You would see all Graphiti school’s courses are skewed towards conceptually learning with focusing on what should be done and not just how it is to be done. Graphiti being a combination of school and studio both, and Ram Mohan as well as Tilak and Munjal; directors of company are by themselves animation professionals, knew ever clearly what’s lacking in animation students. Ram Mohan’s and Graphiti’s focus is been creating original content, the courses were designed keeping this in mind and the need of animation industry. Graphiti’s G Cat course is not a list of lectures and assignments. It is an evolved, tried and tested course module. In fact, Graphiti has designed courses for Maharashtra Government’s Vocational courses.

CG Today : Awesome, would you encourage young students to go into the field of animation?

Dippesh : Of course, animation industry both in India and Abroad is just bound to grow, today every where all you see is Graphics. Be it Bollywood / Hollywood / Tollywood or even your television serials. Every were you will see animated / graphic content. 3 out of 5 ads have animation in them. Animation is not restricted to just entertainment. We see animation is also used in medical, engineering, architectural, education, bio-technical fields. Requirement of great skills and creatively enhanced students and professional is just increasing.

Gaming in India, is increasing multifold, new games, desi games are released in India every month. Our sister company, Sony Computer Entertainment, under PlayStation releases various desi games in India.

So you can imagine the scope of work and job requirements. I would suggest students don’t just look at only Entertainment and Animation Companies as an employer, many more industries and companies are facing trouble sourcing you guys.

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