Hyderabad: IT minister K.T. Rama Rao laid the foundation stone for the New Age Charminar Image Tower, which will be developed as the epicentre of the creative industry, at the Knowledge City hub in Raidurg on Sunday.
The minister said the state-of-the-art facility was intended to function as a centre of excellence and a one-stop-shop for animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) units. The building, which will be constructed on the basis of cube geometry in the shape of the English letter “T”, has been designed by architect Nitin Gupta of Arcop Associates.
Mr Rama Rao said that the letter ‘T’ represented Telangana as well as technology. He said that the building would most certainly be noticed by international players. He said the tower had grabbed attention nationally and that Madhya Pradesh minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia had reached out to him after seeing the ima-ges that he had shared on Twitter.
“Once operational, the Image Tower will be the only facility in the Asia-Pacific region to offer all kinds of support services under one roof. It will surpass Media City in the UK, and Digital City in Seoul, ” said KTR.
Mr Rama Rao said that Telangana state was home to some major blockbuster movies from Hollywood, Bollywood and Tollywood, and a hub for the development of games such as Farmville.
The government aspires to increase tech exports and employment and to make Hyderabad a hub for the creative industry, for which it has introduced the Image Policy 2016 and is developing the Image Tower.
Mr Rama Rao also offered to design a tailor-made incentives package, apart from the enticements and subsidies already announced for the development of the gaming and animation sector, for mega-investors.
16L sq ft: Built-up space at Image Tower, which is expected to be operational by 2020.
Rs 945 crore: Estimated cost of Image Tower construction
10: Companies being incubated by the state government at the Image Incubation Centre for Gaming and Animation in Hitec City.
100: Companies with about 30,000 employees working in the areas of VFX, 2D and 3D animation and gaming in Hyderabad. They develop content worth $300 million every year.
$1.39bn: Size of the market for animation and VFX from India, estimated by KPMG-FICCI. It is expected to reach $3.12 billion by 2021.
