Bengaluru
“The suddenness was truly shocking. It unfolded like a scene from a Hollywood horror movie — although most of our talent went into creating fun films for global audiences,” said a senior rigging artist, a professional who builds digital skeletons for 3D characters and objects in animation and visual effects. The artist, who requested anonymity, worked at Technicolor’s studio in Bengaluru’s International Tech Park, now closed.
The implosion of Technicolor India, owned by the Technicolor Group of Paris, which developed visual effects (VFX), cartoons and animation graphics for hundreds of full-length feature films for Hollywood, did indeed appear like a scene from a scary movie for its 3,200 employees in Bengaluru and Mumbai who lost their jobs suddenly.
This is the first massive layoff the Indian AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality) industry has seen, affecting the sector in Bengaluru acutely. About 3,000 of its employees were based in Bengaluru and 200 in Mumbai. It has a global headcount of over 10,000 across France, the US, Canada, and India.
‘Thought it was a prank’
“We had no clue about it until HR asked us to pack up and leave the office in 15 minutes on February 24, 2025, our last working day. Some of us still thought it was a prank. It took time for us to digest that we are part of the global closure of Technicolor,’‘ claimed the rigging artist who chose to withhold his identity.
Technicolor in Bengaluru and Mumbai employed hundreds of animators, lighting artists, simulators, image rendering specialists, experts in shades and materials, shadow and occlusion managers, collaborators, colour graders, post processing specialists, special effects experts, graphic artists, atmosphere and volume metric experts who all worked for Hollywood movies by various production houses including DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, MGM, Sony Pictures, The Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, Marvel Studios, Amazon Studios, and many others.
The last full-length Hollywood feature film Technicolor India completed was Mufasa: The Lion King by Walt Disney. “Mufasa: The Lion King” has grossed a worldwide total of $708 million, with collections in India accounting for ₹132.65 crore. Some global releases that Technicolor worked from Bengaluru included Puss in Boots, Madagaskar 3, Kung Fu Panda series, Snow White, Lion King and Mission Impossible. Plankton: The Movie and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
With the global closure of Technicolor, all four studios/ divisions of the company — MPC (film & episodic), The Mill (ad films for brands), Mikros Animation (animation) and Technicolor Games (games) have come to a standstill, putting an end to Technicolor’s iconic global journey of 110 years.
Biren Ghose, Managing Director, Technicolor India, in a virtual town hall on February 26, told the employees, ‘’Technicolour India is financially and operationally not moving forward. We reached a state where we are not able to function as an organisation anymore.’‘
This came just after Technicolor Group, the parent company, filed for court recovery procedure in France, citing its inability to find investors to continue to do business further. Ghose said, however, that the India leadership and counterparts in other geographies were not privy to this finality and suddenness of the decision to close down the operations. India management came to know about it only when they received an email from Caroline Parot, CEO of Technicolor Group.
Parot’s email to employees on February 24 said the group was unable to find new investors despite extensive efforts and therefore filed for court “recovery procedure” before the French Court of Justice to give a chance to find solutions. It is understood that severe financial difficulties led to the global closure of all its studios and business operations.
Jolt to State’s industry
The sudden closure of Technicolour sent shockwaves across the global VXF/ AVGC-XR industry, more so to Karnataka, the first state to bring out a policy for AVGC-XR with an ambitious plan to grow the sector and create close to one and a half lakh jobs in the next five years. Technicolor India has been a global face of Karnataka’s AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality) industry.
Incidentally, news of Technicolor’s exit coincided with GAFX-2025 (Games, Animation and Visual FX), an annual conference hosted by Karnataka government under the supervision of the State’s IT Minister, Priyank Kharge.
Kharge said the closure of Technicolor was due to “a global failure”, but the Indian arm had the right talent and able leadership and has been consistently delivering on global platforms, winning awards and has been profitable. “Karnataka, backed by its progressive policies and supportive ecosystems, offers the right environment for the AVGC-XR sector to thrive and create jobs,’‘ said the Minister.
However, the irony remains that when global AVGC-XR experts at GAFX-2025 held a series of discussions and deliberations on the global business and employment scope of the industry on February 27 this year, dozens of Technicolor employees, who lost their global jobs some days prior, were in distress, unsure of their future.
Industry veteran Ashish S. Kulkarni, Chairman of FICCI for AVGC-XR and Chairman of MCCIA Animation & Gaming committee, said, ‘‘The entire industry is certainly shaken by Technicolor’s exit. It’s a jolt to the industry globally, shock to Karnataka and the whole AVGX-XR ecosystem in the country.’‘
Silver lining?
However, he said there could be respite as clients, mostly large movie production houses, would now look for other service providers within India. So the work Technicolor has been doing from India could go to other qualified AVGC-XR players in the country, and won’t be lost for the country, Kulkarni argued.
He further added that Technicolor’s exit may trigger a shakeout and consolidation in India’s AVGC-XR sector, and this could also accelerate project-based hiring.
Echoing similar sentiments, Munjal B. Shroff, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Graphiti Multimedia, a production house and animation and VFX studio in Mumbai, said, “This has come as a shock for the industry globally and more so for India and Bengaluru. But for global production houses, their shows should go on, and they will look at other graphic content providers in the country.’‘
According to AVGC-XR experts, there is some slowdown globally, as some global studios and graphics firms are yet to recover from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, plus there is a cascading effect of the writers’ strike in the U.S. Until some months ago, Hollywood writers were on a strike to protect their livelihoods from generative AI. “When there are no stories, no production happens, and the industry globally suffered for months,’‘ Shroff said.
Labour Department in talks
Meanwhile, Labour Commissioner H.N. Gopalakrishna met Technicolor employees, representatives of Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) and two legal counsels representing Technicolor on March 11. He told The Hindu, “Employees have shared their grievances. They say their February salaries are not paid. Tax deductions from their salaries are not remitted to the IT Department from July 2024, according to them. Office rent has not been paid for three months.’‘
Gopalakrishna said the management has so far not officially terminated the services of the employees. Nobody from the company attended the meeting except their legal advisors. They sought time to come back with authorisation and statements. ‘‘Unless we know whether it’s an official layoff, retrenchment or closure, we are unable to decide the next course of action,’‘ the Labour Commissioner added.
“They told us no further job and no salary. But they did not terminate us officially because they don’t want us to take legal action against them. So, we are still employees of Technicolor as per the documents. They issued experience certificates to us and told us we were free to explore other jobs,’‘ said an employee on the condition of anonymity. According to a city-based hiring consultant, many of these employees have floated their CVs on multiple job sites and also on LinkedIn seeking alternate career engagements.
KITU President V.J.K. Nair said the mass layoff at Technicolor has put several thousands of employees in distress. Hundreds of employees approached the union on March 2, and the union formed a unit of Technicolor employees and filed an industrial dispute at the Labour Commissioner’s office.
“We are following the procedure. We are also filing separate complaints to recover their pending salary under Section 33C. The next conciliation meeting with the Labour Commissioner will be held on March 18 in Bengaluru,’‘ said Nair.
Uncertain times
As uncertainty prevails, over 3,200 animators are in deep distress. Their salaries remain unpaid, and they say that they are not able to pay their rents and EMIs as ‘‘funds from the headquarters did not arrive.’‘
“We have relocated to Bengaluru for this job with our families. Our children are in school. We feel betrayed and abandoned by the company that we happily served for years. We were suddenly sort of shooed away without even being allowed to take our personal belongings on that day,’‘ alleged a graphic artist with tears rolling down her cheeks.
An email query sent to Technicolor headquarters in Paris didn’t yield any response.
Published – March 14, 2025 06:54 am IST