Chandamama to hit TV screens

As Little Krishna, upcoming animated TV serial, gets ready to make an international appearance after the successful animated Indian characters of Bal Ganesha and Hanuman, 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 (Rs 800 million) and Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).

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 (Rs 500 million) 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.