Cartoon Network to air Little Pandavas

Hyderabad-based Panel Animation has inked a deal with Turner Asia, a Time Warner company, for airing its 60-minute animation movie – Little Pandavas. The movie will be ready in about six months and telecast on Cartoon Network in 24 countries including India, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Japan.

“With this, we are entering the international television market with prime IP content,” says Rudra Matsa, managing director and chief executive officer of Panel E, a newly-formed production company of Panel Animation to focus on entertainment and media segments. Little Pandavas is the first project of Panel E.

Turner has agreed for a pre-buy deal and will contribute towards production expenses. The movie is expected to cost Rs 1 crore and Turner will share about 25 per cent of the production expenses. In return, it will have the exclusive rights for the movie.

The movie, based on the epic Mahabharata, will have about 200 characters. Panel E is also working on the script for a theatrical release of Little Pandavas, which will have roughly 700,000 sketches made in India and the Philippines.

Matsa said the company was also in talks with a children’s magazine for releasing the movie in comic strips. It is also in talks with an online gaming portal for role-play games based on Little Pandavas and is exploring the possibility of a teleserial with a Singapore-based company. It is likely to be a 52-episode serial, each spanning 22 minutes.

Panel E is expecting about Rs 5 crore direct and indirect revenues including DVD and DTH video deals from Little Pandavas. The company is also betting big on toys and merchandise.

“We expect the product to have a life of at least 5 years,” he said.

The company would invest about Rs 100 crore in its proposed projects including Ethan, a 90-minute action-comedy animation movie, Rendezvous with Bliss, an all girl-centered movie, and Baba, based on the life of Sai Baba, in the next six months.