VFX EXCLUSIVE: Cartoonist Pran’s comic character Billoo gets animated series -

EXCLUSIVE: Cartoonist Pran’s comic character Billoo gets animated series

Digitales Studios in a joint venture with Pran’s Features is producing a 3D animated series based on famous Indian cartoonist Pran’s comic character Billoo.

Announced on this Children’s Day, the show, also titled Billoo, will be a reboot of the comic series, but will reprise the characters from the comics. Billoo is an eight year old boy with a mastermind. The stories will revolve around Billoo and his gang Gabdoo, Jozi and Pape. Other characters Col 303 and Bajrangi Pehelwan will also be seen in the show.

From left: Pran Kumar and Dipesh Desai

“Kids are very naughty and at the same time intelligent. With time, the demands of kids keep changing. Even if we grow old, we always remember our childhood and the pranks we played in our school,” says Digitales Studios managing director Dipesh Desai. “Billoo represents today’s child. He’s intelligent, playful, adventurous, master planner, a leader and sporty. He is full of energy.”

Padma Shri award-winning cartoonist Pran Kumar, best known for the creation of Chacha Chaudhary, created Billoo in 1973. His other characters Shrimatiji, Pinki, Raman and Channi Chachi also regularly appeared in Indian magazines.

“The humour in Pran’s comics is universal. He believed that there’s a Billoo/child in every person. Through his comics, he brought that child out in the readers,” explains Pran’s Features CEO Nikhil Pran.

The show, which is targeted at six to 11 year olds, will have well-known Bollywood singers and musicians associated with it.

A few broadcasters are interested in the concept but Desai says that the development is in the nascent stage so the focus is only on that.

VFX