India's Anime Moment: Mumbai Convention Launches Homegrown IPs

Mumbai's three-day anime convention spent its weekend doing something bigger than celebrating old favorites, according to a report from Animation Xpress published this month. Call it India's Anime Moment: Mumbai Convention Launches Homegrown IPs. The gathering turned its floor into a launchpad: fresh Indian IPs, new characters, and story worlds jostled with global franchises for a slice of a swelling fandom. More than 45,000 footfalls poured through the doors — and India showed it is no longer just anime's biggest fan market. It is minting its own. The thesis of the weekend, in one line: India's Anime Moment: Mumbai Convention Launches Homegrown IPs.

The timing is no accident. Anime is now among India's fastest-growing content formats, with its audience size up thirty-two percent year on year, according to a recent audience survey by media consulting firm Ormax Media, as reported through TradingView's news desk. The survey of 15,000 respondents conducted in June and July 2026 puts India's total OTT audience universe at 664.9 million people. When a fandom grows that fast, a convention floor becomes the cheapest, loudest place to launch something new — directly in front of the people most likely to love it, the same fans powering this fall's crowded anime season.

This is the playbook major anime and comic conventions have run for years. In Japan and the United States, big expo stages routinely double as announcement platforms where new properties debut before they ever reach a streaming service. Indian studios are now running the same move at home: unveil on the floor, let the crowd's reaction do the marketing, and build a licensing story around characters fans have already met.

The new Indian IPs that took the stage

The first wave belonged to original Indian properties — India's Anime Moment: Mumbai Convention Launches Homegrown IPs, played out one announcement at a time.

Maayan, a comic-origin IP from Carmond Infinity, is moving into animation after the studio tested the property with its readers; its animation teaser premiered on stage, and Takahiro Kishimoto, producer of Crayon Shin-chan, unveiled the movie poster with the team. A family IP arrived too: The Action G.A.N.G – Grandma & Next Gen, from the team behind Bhooshan's Junior, built around a grandmother and a new generation of young heroes and aimed at global audiences. And Nokoverse premiered the official trailer for Noko: Guardians of the Earth, a 3D animated children's series about five friends, friendship, curiosity, and discovery.

Emomee Entertainment introduced Emomee, a character-led children's universe built around E, Mo and Mee, with stories meant to build curiosity, confidence, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking. Neo Entertainment Studios arrived with Garuda – The Wings of the Divine: Sacred Legacy, pitching Indian mythology as raw material for original animation and gaming. Muse Communication partnered with Bacca Bucci, the Indian footwear and lifestyle brand, to show anime-inspired product — a reminder that fandom now runs through licensing and consumer goods as much as screens — and showcased Black Torch, the supernatural action anime, as a case for IP partnership.

Second wave: big franchises enter the frame

The rest of the floor kept building India's Anime Moment: Mumbai Convention Launches Homegrown IPs, mixing emerging and established properties. Panchsheela, billed as the world's first Indian magical-girl anime series from Geek Pictures India and Geek Toys, follows five schoolgirls from different regions of India against an ancient supernatural force. Baahubali: The Eternal War, the animated chapter of the Baahubali universe, was showcased with details of its development and creative team. "Animation and anime culture in India has grown tremendously over the years, and it is exciting to see audiences embracing the medium so passionately," said Arka Mediaworks founder Yarlagadda, in comments reported by IndianTelevision. The project is directed by Ishan Shukla and presented by S. S. Rajamouli.

More originals filled out the floor. The Saviors of Sanjeevani, from the independent studio Small Town Boys, drew attention as an incubated original. Asit Kumarr Modi framed Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah as a multi-format entertainment universe, including a move from 2D to 3D animation. Warner Bros. Discovery brought Rise of Anshaks: Heroes of Destiny, an anime-inspired series placing Chhota Bheem and Little Singham in a cosmic fight between light and shadow and adding a new squad of superheroes to Pogo's universe. The convention also discussed Doraemon the Movie: New Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil, produced in part by TV Asahi, in the context of the blue cat's theatrical run in India, merchandise, and India–Japan co-production.

Why this matters for Gen Z fans

The deeper story is a power shift. For years, India was cast as the world's most promising anime audience — viewers, not makers. The Mumbai lineup argues the pipeline is flipping: Indian studios are building original properties with anime grammar, mythology, and global licensing ambitions, then launching them on Indian soil. It fits a wider pattern documented by Livemint, where Indian comics are leveling up as Gen Z turns to anime and manga for its modern heroes.

The counterpoint is the hard part no convention can solve: announcements are cheap, finished shows are not. The test of the Mumbai wave will be whether these teasers and trailers turn into released series, sustained fandoms, and merchandise lines — or join the graveyard of splashy IP launches that never shipped. The next data point arrives soon: Hyderabad hosts the next edition in November, and if Mumbai is the template, fans can expect another wave of new worlds, bigger IPs, and stranger collaborations.

The Mumbai floor made the argument in public: a convention is no longer only a meeting point for fans. It is where IP is launched, licensed, and tested. For a generation that grew up watching anime, the next step is watching anime that grows up in India. India's Anime Moment: Mumbai Convention Launches Homegrown IPs — the story is only getting started.