Company president Nitin Siddamsetty said they were working on at least six big projects and also exploring the joint venture route for securing funds. It has already set up the distributor network for its projects, including animation movies. While Panel would fund the pre-production activities, the partners would provide funding for the production and distribution.
Among the various project Panel is currently working on include Little Pandavas, an animation movie based on the epic Mahabharata. This would be a 90-minute movie, the background score of which is being done by the Indian rock band, Parikrama.
"We are doing the pre-production and it would be released in 18 months," Siddamsetty said. The project is estimated to cost Rs 15 crore and another Rs 5 crore would be spent on its marketing. Panel plans to release the movie first overseas before offering it to the Indian audience.
"We are in talks with a global production house for releasing 26 episodes of Little Pandavas on a worldwide children's channel," he said. The company is also looking to seal a partnership with a publisher for bringing out books and comics of specific projects. This apart, comics version of Happy Days, a recent Telugu hit that centered around college going youth, is on the cards.
Another project on the anvil is Ethan, a 90 minute action-comedy animation movie that would be produced at an estimated Rs 6 crore. The company is also researching on Rendezvous with Bliss, an all girl-centered movie, and Baba, based on the life of Sai Baba.
Panel is working on a multi-product format to have some projects in role-play games, comics and merchandising and table tops. It is in talks with a few toy houses to bring out toys based on the characters and animations in their projects, informed Rudra Matsa, managing director and chief executive officer of Panel and director of Little Pandavas.
To cope with shortage of animators, the company, through its UD School of Animation, has started a three-year BSc in animation in association with Shobit University.
