Following close on the heels of the closure of Crest and Rhythm & Hues Studios in India, yet another VFX/Animation giant Sony Pictures Imageworks announced that it plans to close its operations in India once its lease expires in March this year. Variety.com broke this news first on Wednesday evening, which was later confirmed by employees of the Chennai studio.
Just a few days ago the company had announced that it was moving some of its staff from its Los Angeles studio to Vancouver in a move to save $250 million in costs. Just as employees were bracing for potential layoffs, in less than a week comes this announcement that will affect close to 100 employees that work for the Chennai-based facility. Apparently a few of them have been given an offer to relocate but this news is yet to be confirmed. Imageworks India was launched in 2007, when Sony acquired the Indian animation studio – FrameFlow.