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Tag: Devarajan

  • Disney brings Graphic’s ‘Astra Force’ on Big B’s birthday

    Disney brings Graphic’s ‘Astra Force’ on Big B’s birthday

    MUMBAI: Graphic India and Disney Channel India will reveal the first look of its superhero series Astra Force on the occasion of Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday – 11th October as a special surprise for the millions of megastar’s fans around the world.

    In the month of August last year, Graphic and Disney announced the production of the animated series -“Astra Force.” with legendary icon, Bachchan. A funny and fast-paced, action-adventure series, filled with laughs and thrills, “Astra Force” tells the story of a mythical hero from a distant world, who was stranded on th earth millions of years ago after an epic space battle.

    When 8-year old brother and sister twins accidentally awaken the mythical superhero from his long hibernation, they must teach him about our modern world and join Astra to save the universe from a new wave of giant monsters and intergalactic threats.

    “At the heart of everything we do at Disney is tell great stories and we tell them in a manner that our audiences that can relate with. We have been building on our local animation slate on Disney Channel; offering content and content that kids have come to love and now with Astra Force, we are extremely happy to have partnered with Sharad and Mr. Bachchan to bring in another interesting facet to storytelling in this space, said Disney India VP – content and communications, media networks, Vijay Subramaniam.

    “Amitabh Bachchan is a real life superhero to millions, including myself, so it’s no surprise that he is the perfect person to become immortalized in this new animated avatar,” added Graphic’s Co-Founder & CEO Sharad Devarajan. “The opportunity to collaborate with Bachchan on ‘Astra Force’ is made that much stronger by partnering with Disney, a company whose creativity and storytelling I have admired all my life.”

    Disney Channel India has been entertaining kids and families through a range of locally relevant stories spread across high-quality animation series and “Astra Force” will be the perfect complement to the line-up of existing shows.

    Devarajan is the producer on “Astra Force” along with Graphic India SVP-Creative Jeevan J. Kang who is overseeing visual development character design and art for the project.

    Graphic’s previous animated superhero, Chakra The Invincible, was created with Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Avengers) and received over 30 million views globally on Rovio’s ToonsTV platform available through the Angry Birds app.

    Graphic India is a character entertainment company focused on creating leading characters, comics and stories through mobile and digital platforms. Founded by media entrepreneurs Devarajan, Gotham Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman, it is owned by the U.S. comic book company, Liquid Comics and CA Media LP, the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group, LLC (TCG).

  • Disney brings Graphic’s ‘Astra Force’ on Big B’s birthday

    Disney brings Graphic’s ‘Astra Force’ on Big B’s birthday

    MUMBAI: Graphic India and Disney Channel India will reveal the first look of its superhero series Astra Force on the occasion of Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday – 11th October as a special surprise for the millions of megastar’s fans around the world.

    In the month of August last year, Graphic and Disney announced the production of the animated series -“Astra Force.” with legendary icon, Bachchan. A funny and fast-paced, action-adventure series, filled with laughs and thrills, “Astra Force” tells the story of a mythical hero from a distant world, who was stranded on th earth millions of years ago after an epic space battle.

    When 8-year old brother and sister twins accidentally awaken the mythical superhero from his long hibernation, they must teach him about our modern world and join Astra to save the universe from a new wave of giant monsters and intergalactic threats.

    “At the heart of everything we do at Disney is tell great stories and we tell them in a manner that our audiences that can relate with. We have been building on our local animation slate on Disney Channel; offering content and content that kids have come to love and now with Astra Force, we are extremely happy to have partnered with Sharad and Mr. Bachchan to bring in another interesting facet to storytelling in this space, said Disney India VP – content and communications, media networks, Vijay Subramaniam.

    “Amitabh Bachchan is a real life superhero to millions, including myself, so it’s no surprise that he is the perfect person to become immortalized in this new animated avatar,” added Graphic’s Co-Founder & CEO Sharad Devarajan. “The opportunity to collaborate with Bachchan on ‘Astra Force’ is made that much stronger by partnering with Disney, a company whose creativity and storytelling I have admired all my life.”

    Disney Channel India has been entertaining kids and families through a range of locally relevant stories spread across high-quality animation series and “Astra Force” will be the perfect complement to the line-up of existing shows.

    Devarajan is the producer on “Astra Force” along with Graphic India SVP-Creative Jeevan J. Kang who is overseeing visual development character design and art for the project.

    Graphic’s previous animated superhero, Chakra The Invincible, was created with Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Avengers) and received over 30 million views globally on Rovio’s ToonsTV platform available through the Angry Birds app.

    Graphic India is a character entertainment company focused on creating leading characters, comics and stories through mobile and digital platforms. Founded by media entrepreneurs Devarajan, Gotham Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman, it is owned by the U.S. comic book company, Liquid Comics and CA Media LP, the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group, LLC (TCG).

  • Graphic India raises $2.8 million to create mobile content

    Graphic India raises $2.8 million to create mobile content

    MUMBAI: Graphic India has closed a new seed-financing round of $2.8 million. 

     

    The financing was led by CA Media, the Asian investment arm of Peter Chernin’s The Chernin Group that had picked up a stake in Graphic India in 2013, and Michael Maher’s New York based Start Media. The other investors in the seed-financing include Backflip Studios Julian Farrior and Dale Thoms.

     

    The funds raised will be utilised to create content in English, Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages for the Indian youth to consume on their mobile devices. India has more than 850 active mobile connections and 550 million people under the age of 25.

     

    Graphic India is looking at launching a new wave of enduring characters and mythic heroes for audiences in India and around the world.

     

    Graphic India CEO and co-founder Sharad Devarajan said, “The next Steven Spielberg, JK Rowling, Stan Lee or Miyazaki exists somewhere in India, ready to change the world through their stories. At Graphic, we will find these breakthrough talents and give them the resources and the digital platform to share their creativity with the world. This new financing will expand our content offering and allow us to create India’s premiere mobile platform for comics and animation – engaging and building a passionate community of superhero, sci-fi and mythology fans through Graphic’s content and characters.”

     

    Over the next few months, Graphic India will unveil a number of digital products and apps in India to build direct engagement with the growing community of comic book and animation fans in the country.

     

    “We have always believed in the immense potential of Graphic India. An amalgamation of talent and creativity, the characters, heroes and stories from Graphic India, tap into the unique ingenuity and culture of India, but appeal to audiences worldwide. With smart phones increasingly becoming the preferred medium of entertainment for the youth and the ever increasing consumer reach of mobiles in India, the move towards expanding their offering and creating content for smart phones and tablets will give them with a significant boost and enthuse the next generation of comic buffs,” added Chernin Asia Media Group COO Rajesh Kamat.

     

    Founded in January 2013, by Devarajan, Gotham Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman, Graphic India had previously raised $2.5 million in initial seed financing from CA Media.

     

  • Balaji Telefilms joins Indus Media to enter American TV market

    Balaji Telefilms joins Indus Media to enter American TV market

    MUMBAI: One of India’s leading television and film production company, Balaji Telefilms, has marked its foray into the American television market by inking an American television series production deal with Indus Media. This deal will see Balaji secure rights to the TV series Brown Nation, a satirical comedy based on the lives of Indian Americans.

    This will be the first series under the new deal and is being planned for release in early 2015. Balaji has been scouting for collaborations with international players to produce content for various geographies across media platforms and this will be an important step to reach out to a diverse audience.

    The production house had recently roped in media veteran Sameer Nair as the group CEO to spearhead its expansion strategy and lead the way for the next level of growth by identifying unexplored avenues.

    “India is at the centre of global limelight and the timing is right for us to create path breaking entertainment on an international stage. We look forward to this partnership to extend our creative success to newer horizons,” said Balaji Telefilms joint managing director Ekta Kapoor.

    “We are extremely pleased to join with Indus in producing this series,” added Nair. “American sitcoms have influenced urban India and Indian youth across the globe. This will be a good opportunity for us to leverage our creative supremacy to enter a market not sufficiently fed with similar products,” he further said.

    “We have been looking to enter India with our proposed entertainment fund and this fits in well with our India strategy. We are absolutely delighted to associate with Balaji Telefilms to fuel our growth,” said Indus Media founding director Naveen Chathappuram.

    Added Indus Media founding director Devarajan, “I have had a long standing relationship with Balaji and this deal is a dream come true. We are very excited about our new creative and business partnership with Balaji and look forward to enhance value to all stakeholders.”

    American television has always been popular with youngsters in India. Be it ‘Friends’, ‘Two and Half Men’, ‘Big Bang Theory, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and the like. On the other hand, Indian characters have become a permanent fixture on American television sitcoms, as well as in movies. One of the main reasons for this is the dramatic growth in the size of the Indian American community in the past two decades – Indian American population grew from 815,000 in 1990 to 4.50 million in 2013. Most successful shows launched in the past five years feature a prominent Indian actor: “The Office,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “30 Rock,” “Chuck,” and “Parks and Recreation”.

    Brown Nation, directed by Abi Varghese, is currently being shot in New Jersey and has Indian actor Shenaz Treasurywala playing one of the lead roles. The comedy series depicts the everyday lives of south Asians living in America. The target market for Brown Nation is 18-45 year old Americans and NRIs. Recent comedy series such as The Office and Parks and Recreations have skewed to these age segments while casting a strong, universal appeal to all age groups.

    Indus Media recently announced its plans to launch a 50 million dollar entertainment fund to invest in films and television in American and south Indian market. With Balaji’s successful run in the film business, there could be more areas of synergy between the two partners especially the growing south Indian film market.