Technicolor shuts India operations; over 3,000 staff lose jobs

Technicolor India, a VFX and animation studio, closes operations in India, impacting AVGC-XR sector and global film production.

Technicolor India, a studio owned by Technicolor Group of Paris, that develops visual effects (VFX) and animation graphics for many full length feature films of Hollywood movie production houses, is shutting down its operations in India, in Bengaluru and Mumbai, as part of the group’s global closure.

The company employs 3,200 people in India of which close to 3000 people are in Bengaluru while it has a global headcount of over 10,000 across France, U.S., Canada and India.

‘’Technicolour India is financially and operationally not moving forward. We reached a state where we are not able to function as an organisation anymore,’‘ said Biren Ghose, Managing Director, Technicolor India in a town hall.

The news of the closure came after Technicolor Group, the parent company, filed for court recovery procedure in France citing its inability to find investors to continue to business further.

The India leadership as well as counterparts in other geographies were not privy to this finality and suddenness of the decision to close down the operations. “India management got to know about it only when we received an email, out of the blue, from Caroline Parot, CEO of Technicolor Group,’‘ Mr. Ghose informed the employees.

Ms. Parot’s email to employees on Monday 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.

Technicolor employed hundreds of animators, lighting artists, special effects experts, graphic artists, atmosphere and volume metric experts and image rendering specialists in Bengaluru who worked on dozens of Hollywood films by various production houses such as DreamWorks Pictures, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, etc. Puss in Boots, Madagascar 3, Kung Fu Panda series include some of the films Technicolor worked from the city and its latest was Mufasa: The Lion King by Walt Disney. Mr. Ghose had earlier said over 70% of the special effects and graphics for Mufasa was developed by his team in the city and the movie so far has collected over $700 million globally.