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Tag: Motu Patlu

  • Cosmos-Maya’s strategy for global animation

    Cosmos-Maya’s strategy for global animation

    MUMBAI: Producing animation series isn’t a low-hanging fruit. Considering that a huge amount of money is spent on the production of animated shows than general entertainment channels (GECs) in the Indian television segment, it takes a big heart to risk Rs 20-60 lakh for an animated show’s 11-22 minute episode as against investing Rs 7-8 lakh to produce a daily soap.  But one man decided to don the hat of a filmmaker and launched an animation studio named Cosmos-Maya, realising the need to create more home-grown content rather than depending on overseas programmes on TV.  

    Cosmos-Maya, founded by Ketan Mehta, commenced its journey 20 years ago when he faced certain issues during 1993 in infusing some visual effects for a scene in his movie Maya Memsaab.

    Ketan said, “There was a shot required in the climax where we had to use special effects. Maya drinks a magic potion and disappears in the flame of light. I tried to shoot it in 10 different ways and it was still not satisfied because the technology was just not available in India at that point in time.” In search of the right equipment and expertise, he travelled to Hong Kong but to no avail.

    “I felt that it was a shame that India, which claims to be the largest film industry in the world, didn’t have the basic technology that a filmmaker wants. But fortunately, around the same time, visual technology was taking off, so we decided to take a leap of faith and start a studio,” he added.

    The journey was tough. Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta said that scaling up from 40 to 1200 employees was a major challenge. “It was a challenge in the beginning and it is a challenge now that it has been achieved. There have been a lot of ongoing hurdles. Ensuring that there is no repetition and bringing out this mirrored range of variety from a creative standpoint is also an ongoing challenge that is dealt with on a fairly regular basis.”

    Now, the company is filled with 1000 techno artists, 20 full-time writers and many other freelance writers and the plan is to double the employee count. 

    Albeit coming from a filmmaking background, his strong belief in launching a studio and training the employees in animation production resulted in a seamless production pipeline. “We produce 30 episodes per month and no other production house is able to produce the number of episodes that we make per month,” said Ketan. Filmmaking experience helped him create his own IPs.

    Bullish about India’s animation scenario today, like every other player in the market, Ketan also feels that it is growing rapidly. According to him, the industry will grow at least 17-20 per cent y-o-y. He believes that so far the growth in the industry has been television driven, but gradually feature films will also come into play.

    A major industry challenge was to evolve the IP rights system. Anish said, “The creation of successful IPs through partnerships is the way forward now because retention of IP has been a major focus area across all the key partners in the value chain. So we need to align with the partners who have a similar vision and share our philosophy. There has to be a complimenting set of goals that both teams are working towards and hence IP partnerships can work out.”

    The animation industry also sees digital being a major future area. According to Ketan, in the next 5-10 years, TV and digital segments will be complementing each other. 

    To take Cosmos-Maya global, the company is already working on developing a global idea. With the Emerald investment, co-production with European and Latin American companies has already commenced. “Now the growth strategy is, how to grow beyond the Indian domestic market,” Ketan added.

    Over the past five years, the company has produced a record 1,400+ half-hours of animated content for major TV and digital platforms, including Viacom18, Disney, Turner, Sony Pictures, Discovery, Netflix, and ALT Balaji. In addition to its hit series Motu Patlu, Cosmos Maya has an impressive twelve titles on TV now, including Shiva, Eena Meena Deeka, Kisna, Vir – The Robot Boy, Guru Aur Bhole, Chacha Bhatija, Tik Tak Tail and Selfie with Bajrangi.

    Pakistan is another major territory for Cosmos-Maya, as the Urdu version of the show Motu Patlu works well with the audience. The show is also dubbed for countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Mauritius.

    Ketan feels that the Indian share in the global market still remains at 1 per cent. He said, “It has phenomenal scope to grow as we have skilled manpower and there’s no reason that we can’t do better in the animation sector.”

    With a bright future, Cosmos Maya is venturing into an unknown but hopeful future.

  • Cosmos Maya bullish on ‘Motu Patlu’ spinoff

    Cosmos Maya bullish on ‘Motu Patlu’ spinoff

    MUMBAI: Inspector Chingum, the first spinoff series of Nickelodeon’s popular show Motu Patlu, was recently launched on Amazon Prime Video and will be available on Pay TV from Diwali. The new show has high quality 3D animation which promises to wow audiences with its action, comedy and masala entertainment that Cosmos Maya is known for. Every episode will have a special song and this is one of the biggest highlights of the series.

    Cosmos Maya CEO Anish Mehta said, “We are an IP focused company and the launch of Inspector Chingum is in line with our vision. Inspector Chingum boasts animation style. It uses high quality 3D animation in a 22 min format and each episode is being treated as a mini film. We believe in the marriage of linear and nonlinear platforms, thereby bringing the best of both worlds together.”

    In October, Cosmos launched Selfie with Bajrangi on digital first on Amazon followed by linear television through Disney Hungama. The ratings are claimed to have been encouraging.

    Cosmos-Maya MD Ketan Mehta said, “The advent of the digital platforms has empowered storytellers in a way that they can use new formats for their narratives. We are fortunate to be in this era of the content business, where linear and nonlinear platforms coexist and have plans to make the most of it.”

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  • YuppTV- Cosmos-Maya partner for kids content

    YuppTV- Cosmos-Maya partner for kids content

    MUMBAI: Cosmos-Maya and YuppTV have entered into a partnership paving the way for more kids content on the over-the-top platform. Cosmos-Maya owns a content bank of more than 1000 hours and runs a highly successful bouquet of digital channels under the umbrella brand WowKidz. The latest offering by WowKidz on YuppTV will be available from 27th April.

    “We are pleased to venture into the kids’ entertainment space with Cosmos-Maya. Kids are a very captive and influential audience and with the help of Cosmos Maya’s popular content on WowKidz we hope to expand our content library and offer them a spectacular experience on our platform. This association aligns with our vision of creating an offering that caters to audiences of all age groups,” YuppTV CEO Uday Reddy said.

    With the help of this association,  Yupp TV subscribers will be able to enjoy popular shows such as Motu Patlu , Vir – the Robot Boy, Chacha Bhatija, Eena Meena Deeka, Kisna among others. The Kids content on YuppTV will be available in three languages Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

    “YuppTV enjoys an envious reach across the global diaspora with over 14.5 million mobile downloads worldwide and this partnership will allow us to reach this audience in multiple Indian languages. With the introduction of our specially curated content on WowKidz, YuppTV too will be engaging with a new audience for the first time. Through this association we hope to introduce our content to kids across geographies especially in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada, etc. further augmenting our footprint across the world,” Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta said.

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  • Nickelodeon all set to de-stress kids this exam season

    Nickelodeon all set to de-stress kids this exam season

    MUMBAI: Exams are right around the corner and Nickelodeon, India’s leading kids’ entertainment channel with its exciting new campaign is all set to help kids unwind during these stressful times. The franchise is all set to flag off a high-octane campaign, Nickelodeon ‘MASTI KA TIME TABLE’ and Sonic ‘SHIVA BANAYE EXAMS COOL’ to make sure that this exam season also becomes memorable for the students.

    Powered by United Colors of Benetton, the campaign will be brought alive on-ground by a high decibel school contact program across 250 schools spanning over eight cities over the next few weeks. The franchise is all set to make exam time stress-free through an engaging and exciting line up of activities which will help kids develop presence of mind and study smart. The campaigns ensure that children achieve balance between their study while simultaneously forgetting exam despairs and de-stress for a while.

    Nickelodeon’s MASTI KA TIME TABLE’ will see series of entertaining promos showcasing various fun ways to deal with exam stress. With this campaign, the channel aims to help kids plan their day better with regular breaks ensuring there is balance between study and play. The series of fun promos coupled with a robust digital, social media and on-ground presence is designed to engage with the young viewers at different touch points.

    On Sonic, “SHIVA BANAYE EXAMS COOL” will provide children smart tips from Shiva to stay cool by following simple exam rules! Armed with easy exam tips Shiva is all set to add a fun element to the stressful season. Kids need to tune in to Sonic every evening from 5:30 – 6:30pm and answer simple questions and stand a chance of winning exciting prizes from their favorite toon, Shiva.

  • Japanese kids’ content going strong despite home-grown onslaught

    Japanese kids’ content going strong despite home-grown onslaught

    MUMBAI: The growth of Japanese anime in children’s television programming in India has been far more rapid and visible than other segments of television. It all started in 1990 when everyone grew up watching Rudyard Kipling’s original collection of series, The Jungle Book, which was a Japanese style animation series that couldn’t be missed on Sundays.

    Since then, there has been no turning back; the fascination for Japanese content in India has grown by leaps and bounds. It didn’t stop with Kipling’s Mowgli series, instead, there was another manga series called Avatar: The Last Airbender. Manga are hand-drawn by artists. Naruto, Naruto: Shippûden were among the known manga series that grabbed more traction from their fans.

    There was a time when Cartoon Network reigned supreme, which, for nine years, maintained its premier position by capitalising on the paucity of television entertainment for children. Animax India, a channel of Sony Entertainment, telecast Japanese anime shows before being shut down.

    Shemaroo Entertainment head-animation business Smita Maroo says that even today Japanese shows gets the eyeballs whereas Indian content is still not the order of the day. “The broadcasters still bombard the channels with Doraemon, Shinchan and Ninja Hattori among others. It’s not that they are rushing towards Indian content,” she says.

    Japanese animation made its entry in the programming line-up of channels with animation series such as Doraemon on Hungama, and Ninja Hattori on Nickelodeon. This was followed by a rush of animation series from Japan and the rest of Asia with shows such as Chibi Maruko Chan on Nickelodeon and Anpanman on Pogo (Nandi, 2012). Giving Doraemon a close competition is Crayon Shinchan, another manga-based anime. It’s among the top five shows for kids aged 2-14, competing with the likes of Chhota Bheem.

    According to some media reports, the market for manga has expanded and Japanese publishing houses, which were earlier reluctant fearing piracy, are showing interest to license more titles.

    Green Gold Animation VP-content sales Bharath Laxmipati said that Chhota Bheem, their original home-grown content was the game changer in the Indian industry because it gave confidence to the broadcasters that local shows can have a tremendous response. It broke the fascination for international shows that was also giving a wrong attitude. He says, “The core of a successful Indian show is the ability to tell stories. Japanese content is popular because they shared similar sentiments with Indians. But the difference is that Indian stories are written with the hero in mind but protagonists in Japanese content such as Doraemon, wherein the kid is not a hero but finds help from a robot, so the main character is the robot Doraemon. Oggy and the Cockroaches from France wasn’t famous until Shahrukh Khan, Sunny Deol and other Bollywood actors gave their voices to the show.”

    He further adds that there are two ways of writing styles, where Chhota Bheem is all about courage, bravery, respect for elders, friendship and all the positive cultures that we have in our Indian culture. “Doraemon was created during the 70s and 80s and were picked up by the broadcasters because they had to fill in the programming, so there’s a different approach between theirs and ours,” he says.

    Maroo says that kid’s content syndication is only for topical reasons but beyond that, the channels want to create their own content and focus on their 2-3 properties. She further added, “In terms of Chhota Bheem and Motu Patlu being famous nowadays, both the shows don’t come on the same channel, so the channel’s overall ratings still comes from other shows.

    According to Maroo, acquiring Japanese content is definitely cheaper than production. Agreeing with Maroo, Laxmipati says, “Anything that is made for the own territory is far more expensive than syndicated content.”

    According to the reports, animation production is expensive in comparison to a general entertainment channel show with the former requiring Rs 10-20 lakh an episode against Rs 7-8 lakh for the latter. 

    “Producing episodes for 2D and 3D for 11-22 minutes would cost Rs 10-20 lakh or even above, depending on the number of characters, background and many other factors. The initial episodes are way higher than even Rs 20 lakh,” adds a media professional.

    Another media professional, however, gave a higher estimate. “Any top show’s production value is between Rs 30-50 lakh. Good content has to be produced at such cost. If we talk about producing for outside, the production cost will be up to Rs 1 crore per episode.”

    The trend of today is to produce home-grown content. The concept of producing original content started in 2008 with Chhota Bheem. Later Nickelodeon India produced Motu Patlu as its home-grown IP show in 2012. Not only this, the year 2017 kick-started a new channel called Sony Yay that completely focused on producing its own IP shows.  

    The supply of India-produced shows is very limited compared to the unlimited growth of Japanese content and other foreign language cartoons. Since Japan has 15-20 years of headstart over India, its library is massive. In 2016, Cartoon Network had 91.61 per cent foreign shows; Pogo had 82.67 per cent while Disney had 60.61 per cent shows from abroad. 

    When asked whether it is easier to attract advertisers for syndicated content as opposed to original content, Maroo commented, “If syndicated content has already got a track record, it would be easier to pick advertisers, because new shows will take time to deliver.”

    She further said that kids will like any content that the channels feed them. With the growth of digital, both TV and digital will co-exist and kids will shift their likeness towards a particular medium or content whatever they find interesting.

    Also Read :

    Original Indian kids’ animation content is the need of the hour

    Kids today watch more animated content than ever

     

  • Nickelodeon’s Republic Day campaign teach kids the true meaning of #Being Republic

    Nickelodeon’s Republic Day campaign teach kids the true meaning of #Being Republic

    Republic Day is celebrated in grandeur every year with ceremonious parades in various parts of the country as well as celebrations across schools. India’s leading kid’s entertainment franchise, Nickelodeon has always ensured to celebrate every occasion with a twist reinforcing the significance every festival by reinventing its true meaning. Given that 26th Januray, marks the day when the Constitution of India came into effect takes upon the mission of educating kids and bringing in awareness about the importance of Republic Day through its campaingn – #BeRepublic

    The campaign saw fun videos that captured quick facts about Republic day and enlightened children bout the rich heritage of our country, importance of parade etc. The session was supported by fun gifs and informative posts on social media. The celebrations continued when Nicktoons took charge of the classroom and converted it to a fun-filled yet informative session at schools across various cities. The toons through various placards enlighted children on quirky unknown facts about our constitution making syllabus for the day fun and memorable.

  • Emerald Media buys controlling stake in Cosmos-Maya

    Emerald Media buys controlling stake in Cosmos-Maya

    Mumbai: Cosmos-Maya, the market leader in IP-led Indian kid’s animation content, has received a shot in the arm as it now tries to cast the net wider in the global market. Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by global investment firm KKR, has acquired a controlling stake in Cosmos-Maya through a combination of primary and secondary stake acquisition. The capital from this investment will help the animation company with strategic growth initiatives and creating global IPs to further increase its footprint across the world.

    Promoted by filmmakers Ketan Mehta and Deepa Sahi, Cosmos-Maya has been one of the pioneers in the art and technology of animation and visual effects in India.  Over the last five years, the company has produced more than a 1000 half-hour segments of animated content. It has multiple ongoing productions with major television and digital platforms, including Viacom18, Disney Networks, Turner International, Sony Pictures Network, Discovery Networks, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and ALT Balaji.

    The creators of the Motu Patlu animation series, a popular Indian kids’ show, Cosmos-Maya has a line-up of nine TV shows on air, including Shiva, Eena Meena Deeka, Kisna, ViR – The Robot Boy, Guru Aur Bhole, Chacha Bhatija, Tik Tak Tail and Selfie with Bajrangi. 

    Cosmos-Maya founder and managing director Ketan Mehta said, “The vision for Cosmos-Maya has always been to become a cutting-edge media technology company creating quality Indian content for the global market. The company will benefit greatly with a partner like Emerald Media, which has a strong understanding of the entertainment, broadcast and the OTT space. Through the capital infused, the company intends to develop international projects while leveraging the media relationships of Emerald to expand its global footprint.”

    The company is also working on three international co-productions—Captain Cactus, Atchoo! and Help me Ganesha—in different stages of production and development. Cosmos-Maya targets audiences globally through its own YouTube channel, WowKidz, which has already become one of the fastest-growing channels for kids’ content with more than 2 million active subscribers and over 2 billion cumulative views since its launch in 2016.

    “Cosmos-Maya has created and owns the content for some of the most popular kids’ shows and, hence, has its finger on the pulse of a very captive and influential audience. With the company now focused on the development of content, that crosses geographies, it is poised for growth on a global stage—not to mention the added opportunity of brand expansion and merchandising for its properties. This investment is a great addition to Emerald Media’s growing portfolio as it aligns with our vision of creating an ecosystem that caters to audiences of all age groups,” said Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat.

    Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta added, “With its successful and sizeable IP bank, strong business associations, a passionate team and the constant quest for quality—combined with the capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth that Emerald Media brings on board—Cosmos-Maya is now poised for a global 360-degree approach to grow and monetise its brands through content, media, marketing, distribution, licensing and retail to markets, for kids across the world.”

  • Kids today watch more animated content than ever

    Kids today watch more animated content than ever

    MUMBAI: Despite the advent of interesting live action and feature films for kids, data suggests that animated content still rules the roost. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data, consumption of non-animated content has decreased considerably in 2017 from 2012.

    During 2012, although the animation genre garnered a majority of the viewership, the eyeballs that were grabbed by feature films and live action programmes for kids was not insignificant. The animation genre garnered 71 per cent of traction, whereas feature films gained 18 per cent of viewers and 11 per cent of viewership was observed in the live action programmes genre.

    For analysis, 2012 and 2017’s viewership for animation, live action programmes and feature films in the urban markets in India were compared by BARC. The viewership data was analysed for the 4-14 years of age group in the year 2012, whereas kids in the age group of 2-14 years were analysed during the year 2017.

    ”I believe ‘building a connect’ is the key when it comes to our audience. While doing extensive research for our channel, Sony Yay, we discovered kids have a larger-than-life imagination and relate to characters basis affinity for them,” says Sony Pictures Network kids genre business head Leena Lele Dutta. “We feel continuous innovations in TV content and offering audiences with endearing characters and compelling stories, which also appeal to their imagination, help in creating a win-win scenario for both.”

    In 2017, the viewership of animation increased to 89 per cent. Feature films dipped from 18 per cent in 2012 to 8 per cent in 2017. Talking about the live action programmes, the viewership in 2017 drastically decreased in the last five years. Live action was left with just 2 per cent.

    The trend observed clearly shows that kids’ channels are betting more on animation driven by international content dubbed in local languages and even locally produced content. Doraemon, Chhota Bheem and Motu Patlu are among the most watched shows.

    Although 60 per cent of the total kids’ viewership on TV in 2012 was by the 9-14 years age bracket, it contributes only 48 per cent viewership of kids’ channels in this year.

    Talking about the kids’ viewership prime time slots, kids viewership starts rising from early morning hours and peaks in the early afternoon. Viewership does not witness any substantial increase post 6 pm, as kids lose control of remote to parents. This potentially reflects co-viewing.

  • Numero uno YouTuber takes a dig at Motu Patlu

    Numero uno YouTuber takes a dig at Motu Patlu

    MUMBAI: You know who Motu Patlu are but many around the world don’t. Well, large parts of the world just got to know them thanks to the antics of the world’s number one YouTuber PewDiePie (Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg). He recently uploaded a video on his YouTube channel (also called PewDiePie) calling Motu Patlu, with sarcasm, ‘a fantasticanime’, ‘one of the greatest creations of Nickelodeon since the 90s’, ‘to its very core, just a fine animation’, and ‘the greatest thing that has ever happened’ among other things.

    He starts with saying that his life “changed for the better in every single way” since he discovered Motu Patlu. He then goes on to explain the character of Motu and his addiction to the Indian fast food item samosa, which he pronounces “samocha.”

    The video has received 1.24 million (about 12 lakhs) views in just 15 hours. With 57 million subscribers to the channel, the numbers are only going to increase. Any publicity, however, is seen as good publicity. Due this flippant attempt to review Motu Patlu’s antics, people may start exploring Indian animated shows, which will only serve to benefit the cartoon show and movie franchise.

    For the full story, visit: http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php/latest-news/no-1-youtuber-pewdiepie-takes-a-jibe-at-motu-patlu

  • From Maya to a real super success, the Cosmos Maya turnaround story

    From Maya to a real super success, the Cosmos Maya turnaround story

    MUMBAI: When it comes to producing animation series, very few can hold a candle to Cosmos Maya. Founded in 1996 as Maya, the animation studio has progressed over the years from creating a single intellectual property Motu Patlu in 2012 to a handful of them in India and overseas.

    Operating out of Mumbai and Singapore, Cosmos Maya  has grown leaps and bounds over the years, always being the trendsetter in the Indian animation industry and now it is en route to rubbing shoulders with some of the prominent studios internationally.

    Following the resounding success of Indian animation productions like Motu Patlu (MP), ViR – The Robot Boy, Kisna, Shiva, Bure Kaam Ka Bura Natija, Kyun Bhai Chacha, Haan Bhatija (BKBNKBCHB) and Guru Aur Bhole (GAB), the studio also branched out into crossover Indian animation productions with Eena Meena Deeka (EMD) and the soon to launch Tik Tak Tail which are Indian shows for global audiences.

    And it’s not just domestically where Cosmos Maya is leaving its footprint… It currently has three international co-productions Captain Cactus, Atchoo! and Help Me Ganesha, in different stages of production and development.

    The journey started when Anish Mehta came in and took over as CEO of the company and he decided to get things moving at a blistering pace.  In the five years since he has been at the helm, Cosmos Maya has produced 12 shows and 1000 plus episodes. In the world of animation that kind of a performance is unparalleled – possibly for any studio not just in India but globally. And continuing on it’s growth trajectory, the company has confirmed contracts and execution plans for around 400 odd episodes within this year.

    What started off as a dream with a handful of team members, is now a fully evolved studio with equipped with systems and processes to handle continuous and simultaneous workflow on account of multiple projects; with a scalable model for growth, with 100% utilised production facilities, both in house as well through a multitude of vendors to whom production work is outsourced, within India and in several parts of Asia. Add to that a well-entrenched penetration in the global markets through its highly developed international distribution and marketing network, and Cosmos-Maya is all set on the growth path.

    The long term vision of the company entails a plan to produce an independent world-class Hollywood feature film, something that BlueSky did with Ice Age. This is the next target that Anish intends to achieve five years from now.

    “We have a great team out here. Be it creatives, production, operations, digital or marketing, each member in the super core team brings in the same passion that helps us create the difference. Then there is the core team which takes the vision to the next level from an execution perspective, while keeping the passion levels intact. And then there are over 600 odd people, each one again working with the same madness,” says a visibly proud youngish academic looking bespectacled Anish Mehta.

    “At Cosmos Maya, the way we approach an IP is keeping in mind what is going on in the market and how do we bring in the next new trend,” explains Anish. “Balancing both of these things is what we focused and continue to focus on, a perfect combination of creative and business acumen.”

    This includes selecting innovative subjects and concepts. The first IP that rolled out was a first of its kind for India as it featured two adult protagonists behaving like silly kids and was titled Motu Patlu. “It was India’s take on the evergreen franchise Laurel & Hardy,” says Anish.

    Cosmos Maya invested in creating a pilot for Motu Patlu and then approached broadcasters – a process which the studio follows to this day. Viacom18’s kids channel Nick bought into it. And Anish’s baby has not looked back since. The Motu Patlu franchise has only grown. Cosmos Maya has 300 plus episodes of the series (600 stories altogether) in its catalogue, 13 TV films and one theatrical film, Motu Patlu – King of Kings.

    And, why not?

    Motu Patlu over the past five years has been a TRP topper for Cosmos Maya and the channel’s creative & programming head Anu Sikka is happy that they have a winner on their hands. So much so that she has signed a long term contract for both Motu Patlu and Shiva with the studio, ensuring that many more episodes and films of the franchises continue to regale audiences. And Anish has a deal with Viacom18 to develop another one.

    Currently, work is on to spin off two series from the Motu Patlu franchise. Anish was willing to talk about one which is being driven by the studio and features characters who have gained popularity with Indian kids: the adorable police officer – Inspector Chingum & Guddu Ghalib – the timid circus lion who became the protector of the jungle in the feature film Motu Patlu – King of Kings. He did not disclose much about the other, cryptically saying that “the new shows will be with a major digital partner and will be digital first productions.”

    He points out that the company has a three pronged strategy:  keep domestic productions such as Motu Patlu, Shiva, GAB, and BKBNKBCHB which have an earthy Indian appeal going successfully. “Then there are shows like Eena Meena Deeka, Tik Tak Tail (which we will be launching soon) don’t necessarily look Indian because they have a wider appeal globally; and lastly there are the international co-productions” he further explains.

    The India centric shows which can travel to about 20 odd countries on an average fetch revenues in the range of around Rs 3 million per episode; while category toppers and milestone makers like Motu Patlu of course fetch at least a 30 per cent higher revenue than this average. On the other hand,  cross-over shows that can travel to over 50 countries have a revenue potential of Rs 5 million per episode. And then the third category of shows, the ambitious globally targeted ones like Captain Cactus and Help Me Ganesha hold a revenue potential of around Rs 10 million per episode.

    Amongst the more ambitious international projects is the one featuring a cactus called Captain Cactus which is at pre-prod stage and is being developed under the creative supervision of Olivier Jean Marie the creator of Oggy & the Cockroaches. An announcement about a worldwide distribution partner should be made by end-August, and Asian partners are expected to sign on the dotted line by end-September.

    Anish is hopeful that Captain Cactus will bring about a revolution in global co-productions since it has got the best of both worlds – that is a strong Asian studio, a European creator and European distribution partners. It is also in talks with a couple of broadcast or digital partners worldwide.

    “From a show perspective we have Olivier Jean-Marie with us who is known for a certain style of story-telling and people jump at the chance of working with him,” he expresses. “So we are quite confident that Captain Cactus will deliver.”

    Anish and team at Cosmos Maya are banking on a new IP inspired by Lord Ganesha which it is developing in a co-production with Gerhard Hahn of Hahn Films. The co-production with the German creator who is one of the more respected animators globally is tentatively called Help me Ganesha.

    “We are very confident that we, with Gerhard Hahn as a partner, will take it on a never seen before global level,” says a sanguine Anish.

    The company is doing well on the digital front too with its IPs on YouTube. Its channel WowKidz has been growing at a rapid clip despite being a late entrant. At last count over 1.5 million subscribers had clocked up around 1.6 billion views for the over 3000 videos that Cosmos Maya has on the channel.  Amongst its foreign imports is a show called Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 which is being promoted with the help of Motu Patlu and is raking in good views.

    “ViR – The Robot Boy has been one of the most important IPs on WowKidz, as per the data analytics from YouTube and we are creating spin-off content from this show for WowKidz,” says Anish. He mentions that because ViR, is a digital phenomenon, a further push for content creation will be given, and new episodes of it will be produced. With spin-off content and a digital first next season plan in place, ViR is going to be one of the key focus IPs in the days to come.

    Its second channel WowKidz Rhymes has 130,000 plus subscribers and caters to the pre-school kids need for freshly narrated nursery rhymes – a slot that the Chennai-based ChuChuTV has very cleverly exploited. Currently, its popular characters Motu Patlu and VIR the Robot boy have been used to recite the nursery rhymes in an engaging manner.  More content around Imli is in the pipeline. With innovation in mobile gaming industry, another focus is towards WowKidz mobile games, engaging kids more towards the popular IPs.

    WowKidz will also introduce another division- WowKidz edutainment for kids for toddlers and pre-school kids to learn alphabets, numbers, shapes, values and general awareness in form of rhymes and shows.

    With so much on its plate, the studio will need to scale up in terms of manpower and further strengthen its infrastructure. A dedicated new facility is coming up in Mumbai near its operational headquarters in Film City.  Additional captive satellite units are also coming up in Hyderabad and Kolkata. The goal is to add around 300 professionals to its 550 strong artist pool.

    Anish believes that the founders of Maya – Ketan Mehta and Deepa Sahi – wanted to do something; hence they set it up.

    “Their dream went on to become an industry,” he says. “I am hopeful that AR and VR (a content area that the company has recently started investing) too will help us polevault to another level. Our animation business too is looking very good.  With so many avenues for our content in place, it is indeed one of the best and the brightest phases for the animation industry.”

    Amen to that!

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