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'Mighty
little Bheem'
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Hyderabad
based Greengold animation studios is in the midst of completing work on
its first fully animated series, Mighty Little Bheem(MLB), for
the Indian and International satellite TV market.
Speaking exclusively to Animation 'xpress, Greengold directors
Samir Jain and Rajiv Chilakalapudi informed that, "MLB is
a 2D animated series and is being developed for Indian and International
audiences. We are in advanced talks with some of the leading satellite
kids entertainment TV channels for the telecast of MLB and plan
to close the deal, latest by March 31 '05"
"The series is 26 episodes of 11 minutes each, of which 12 episodes
are nearly complete and the rest are in various stages of production"
added Rajiv.
"The entire show, right from story and pre production to post has
been done in India and mostly in house" beams Samir Jain proudly.
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Bheem's
gang - Chutki, Raju and Jaggu
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MLB
is conceptualised as an action adventure comedy series. The story is set
2000 years ago in an imaginary town Dholakpur. Bheem the lead character
is based on the Bheem from the legendary Mahabharata. He is a very adorable
character and stands for all things good. He is strong, helpful, kind
and intelligent. He loves eating traditional Indian sweets like Kheer
and Laddoos.
Though
all of them play together, the kids in the village of Dholakpur are divided
into 2 groups. The first group led by Bheem includes Chutki, Raju and
Jaggu the monkey, the other group is led by Kaalia Pehelwaan and includes
the twins Dholu and Bholu.
Gung Ho about
generating revenue from its IP, Greengold has already started working
on merchandise, home video and comics for MLB.
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Sunil
directing the kids for the title track recording
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Produced
by Greengold Animation, the credits for Mighty Little Bheem include
animation direction by Venu Gopal, music direction by Sunil Kaushik,
Creative
Direction by Kaukab Basheer, Script and Dialogue by Arun Shendarekar and
Series Direction by Rajiv Chilakalapudi.
The title track recording and voices were recently done In Mumbai at Ziptrack
and Om Studios in Andheri. Commenting on MLB, the Music director Sunil
kaushik said ,"Doing background and titles for animation is very
demanding. There are a lot of little things that one has to take care
of while recording for animation. I am very happy with the way the title
track has turned out for the show"
The second
series of its maiden venture Bongo is ready for telecast even as
the studio is readying MLB. Greengold has opted for an afternoon
slot (Saturdays 2.00 pm) for the show which shall be aired on National
broadcaster Doordarshan. The new series begins 19 Feb' 05
The ASEAN rights for Bongo have been sold to Mumbai based PMI Entertainment
India ltd which is headed by Ajay Patadia who was formerly heading finance
at Balaji Telefilms. PMI is primarily into content production and produces
content for various markets and in various languages including Bahasa
for Indonesia and Malay for Malaysia.
Commenting on animation and distribution of
animated content, PMI MD & CEO Ajay Patadia said that," Bongo
is our fist accquisition in the animation space. Even though we have
a strong distribution set up in the ASEAN countries, we are more interested
in co producing animation shows than simply accquiring them. We are looking
to partner with content creators for the same. Greengold is a studio that
we have identified as a good creative partner and we look forward to working
with them in the future"
In India, creating localised original content and generating revenue is
a tough ordeal. How does Greengold manage it? Answering the question,
the directors replied,"We are looking at a business model where in
we will have 2 divisions, one for original content production and the
other for service work. While our passion is creating original content
our bread and butter will come from the services"
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