Bengaluru’s AVGC-XR sector goes pale as 110-year-old Technicolor closes shop

Technicolor India's sudden closure shocks 3,200 employees in Bengaluru and Mumbai, impacting the global AVGC-XR industry.

“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.

“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.