Battling Ravan in Manhattan

FILMS Percept plans the third edition of its popular Hanuman series, sets this film in downtown New York

Even as Percept Picture Company's Rs 24 crore animated movie venture Return of Hanuman gets ready for release on December 28, the company has lined up a Rs 40 crore 3-Dimensional animation flick Return of Ravana for May 2009 global release.

The Return of Ravana will be dubbed in all major international languages including German, Spanish, French, Russian among others, industry sources said.

The script for the Return of Ravana is already finalised and this will be on a much bigger scale than Hanuman (2005 release) and the Return of Hanuman (2007 release), says Shailendra Singh, joint managing director of Percept Holdings Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Percept Pictures.

The Return of Ravana will be set in contemporary times in Manhattan, the US. In the proposed trilogy, King Ravan will return in modern times in the US and create problems for the international community. This will lead to the appearance of Hanuman, sources in the knowhow of the proposed script told Business Standard.

"Riding high on the buzz created by the Hanuman series, Percept is trying to get into pre-production tie-up with international distributors, production houses and media houses so that the Return of Ravana generates enough interest in the US and European market before its actually released on May 5, 2009," said a trade analyst.

The upcoming sequel to Hanuman, is already being released by Percept Pictures in major Indian languages and in French and Spanish simultaneously along with release in west asia, south-east asia, European countries among others.

"The scale for the Hanuman sequel has shot up considerably. The film cost us Rs 19 crore to produce and another Rs 5 crore to market it. This is the biggest Indian animation film released so far with over 500 prints within the country and abroad. The trilogy, Return of Ravana will be even bigger," says Singh.

The first part, Hanuman released about two years ago, had an overall budget of Rs 4.6 crore only. After becoming a hit among the kids and at the box office, Percept decided to expand the series into three-part with being the second followed by the Return of Ravana.

According to industry estimates, Hanuman raked in over Rs 12-15 crore and the Return of Hanuman is expected to do business worth Rs 45-55 crore.

According to trade pundits, Percept Pictures has already sold the home video rights of Return of Hanuman internationally to Shemaroo Videos and to T-Series for India and expects to sell the cable and satellite television rights for about Rs 9-10 crore to either Star Plus, Zee TV, Sony TV or 9X for a 3-5 year period.

For merchandising of Hanuman and other characters in the film, Percept has also entered into a Rs 3.7 crore deal with Kishore Bhiyani's Future Group. This deal will enable toys and other merchandise of Hanuman to be available in Big Bazaar, Pantaloon among other Future Group properties.