CG Today - Columnist

Avinash Pant - Executive Director at The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company in India announced the appointment of Mr. Avinash Pant as Executive Director, Marketing, Walt Disney International. The role reports to country manager, Managing Director, Mr. Mahesh Samat.

In this new role, Mr. Pant will be responsible for building the Disney brand by driving the company's marketing strategy, coordinating all Disney business marketing efforts and providing leadership in developing key global and local franchises in India. Avinash will also oversee corporate communications as well as the Creative Design Cell and Live Events functions.

CGTExpo 2011

CGTExpo 2011 is preparing to captivate the students & professionals on 28th and 29th May at Nehru Center, Worli, Mumbai. A zone to learn, Trace back pixels, explore new avenues in animation, get acquainted with latest of technology & find their dream career destinations.

With an amalgamation of strong association with industry leaders, CGTExpo has Technicolor India, DreamWorks Dedicated Unit at Technicolor India, MPC and DSK Supinfocom as Associate Partners. The biggest icon of technology and art, Adobe are tying up with CGTExpo as Technology Partners. BIG AIMS is their Kit-Bag Partner. The most popular section of the expo, the Job fair is set to surprise all jobseekers with Contact Singapore, Lucasfilms Singapore, Reliance Mediaworks, Technicolor India, MPC and Dreamworks Dedicated Unit at Technicolor. The best of the fraternity is present at CGTExpo 2011; some of the other Exhibition Partners are DSK Supinfocom, BIG AIMS, ZICA: Zee Institute of Creative Art, ZIMA: Zee Institute of Film Making, Graphiti School of Animation, SeamEdu, RightbrainFX, AIGA and TASAA Infosolutions.

Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Brian Blessed, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen Also On Board

The pirates - Hugh GrantHugh Grant will voice the lead role alongside an all-star cast in The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the new stop-motion, 3D, animated film produced by Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures Animation. The film, which will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, will be released March 30, 2012 in North America.

Paranoia Short Film

Chota Bheem is a 2D animated TV series produced by Green Gold Animation, Hyderabad along with Turner International, which is been telecasted on Pogo TV won under professional film category while Paranoia, a short film by  (Sandeepan Chanda, Sunil Kumar Yadav, Amrita Mukhopadhyay and Nitesh Mishra ) students of Toonskool (I-Nurture), Bangalore won under student film category (Animation).

Chota Bheem BirthdayPOGO and Boost joined forces to make kids' wishes come true this month with the Chhota Bheem BADAA Birthday contest, which received over 170,000 entries in just four weeks.

Coinciding with the popular hero's birthday celebration on May 1, four major prize winners enjoyed a money-can't-buy experience which included an all expenses paid party for their friends and family and a personalized visit by Chhota Bheem himself at the kids' homes. Other prizes included iPods, music systems, and mobile phones.