Hindi blockbusters meet Bheem: Mukta Arts’ Subhash Ghai & Green Gold’s Rajiv Chilaka explore partnership

MUMBAI: WHEN Subhash Ghai’s dinner parties make headlines, you know something’s brewing—and this time it’s not just the dal makhani. Over samosas and strategy last week, the impresario hosted Rajiv Chilaka, the man who turned a plucky cartoon boy into a billion-rupee juggernaut, and his wife Megha Chilaka, who heads originals at Green Gold Animation. The agenda? Giving Mukta Arts’ legendary film catalogue an animated afterlife.

Picture this: Kalicharan reimagined for the iPad generation. Karz reincarnated as a Saturday morning serial. Khalnayak as a kids’ franchise. The collaboration—call it the Bandra-Dholakpur axis—aims to mine decades of Hindi cinema gold and spin it into animation IPs that could captivate a new generation raised on streaming platforms and short attention spans.

Whistling Woods International vice president, chief technology officer and emerging media head (and Academy member)  Chaitanya Chinchlikar was at the table and couldn’t contain his excitement. Green Gold Animation founder and managing director Chilaka remains characteristically low-key despite creating the Chhota Bheem universe—a property so successful it’s spawned films, merchandise and enough brand extensions to make Disney jealous. Yet he conducts business with the quiet confidence of someone who knows exactly what works.

The potential roster reads like a greatest-hits compilation: Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Iqbal. Each film a cultural touchstone; each now a potential animated franchise. 

Whether Indian audiences are ready to see Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff’s iconic double act rendered in cartoon form remains to be seen. But if anyone can pull off this Bollywood-meets-animation gambit, it’s the team that made a rotund, ladoo-loving boy India’s most bankable animated export.

Watch this space. The announcements, when they come, promise to be anything but chhota.

(Picture courtesy Chaitanya Chinchlikar Linkedin)