Business Standard

Chandamama to hit TV screens

Image

Kaustubh Kulkarni Pune

As 'Little Krishna', the upcoming animated TV serial gets ready to make an international appearance after the successful animated Indian characters of ‘Bal Ganesha’ and ‘Hanuman’, the next treat for kids would be an animated series on popular comic ‘Chandamama’. Anil Ambani’s Big Animation Pvt Ltd has recently bought rights from publishers of ‘Chandamama’ to produce an animated TV series over next two to three years.

Big Animation has selected the most popular characters and stories from the famous magazine Chandamama, which would be launched as a TV serial spanning over a minimum of 25 episodes to begin with. Speaking to Business Standard, Big Animation CEO Ashish SK said, “The project will be handled over a period of three years. We have bought rights from the publishers of ‘Chandamama’ for certain issues and the work over this project is expected to begin shortly,” Ashish said. The project is expected to cost between Rs 80 crore and Rs 100 crore.

 

The TV channels' space for kids entertainment has been growing in India over last four to five years. Currently, it has six popular channels namely Nick, Cartoon Network, Pogo, Toon Disney, Jetex and Hungama.

Speaking about the upcoming TV series ‘Little Krishna’ on Nick TV channel, Ashish stated, “Indian mythological characters like ‘Bal Ganesha’ and ‘Hanuman’ are popular in international space. Our research has proved that ‘Krishna’ is the most widely known Indian mythological character globally. We have invested more than Rs 50 crore over last 7 years to produce this 13-episode long series.”

The series would be screened from Monday to Friday in four slots on Nick TV channel. Nina Elavia Jaipuria, general manager, Nick India said, “We have bought this series from Big Animation for a long duration. The series would be screened on a repeatedly on Nick within Indian sub-continent.” Big Animation however did not disclose the deal size for this deal.

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: May 07 2009 | 12:03 AM IST

Explore News