Turner to extend Cartoon Network brand to theme parks

Ties up with Gujarat-based company Raj Green to launch first theme park

Turner International India (Turner India) and the Rajgreen Group of Companies have announced a brand partnership for the launch Amaazia — India’s first Cartoon Network branded amusement park — located in Surat. The two have entered a 10-year agreement. The park spread over 61,000 square metres has been conceptualised and designed by the Sanderson Group, Australia. 

The theme park will have 33 rides and attractions featuring popular Cartoon Network characters, like Ben 10, The Powerpuff Girls and Adventure Time apart from multiple branded zones and 20 unique water-slides. The venture aims to tap one million footfalls in its first year of operations. 

Amaazia will be Cartoon Network’s first brand association for an amusement park in India. Announcing this development, Siddharth Jain, managing director, South Asia, Turner India, said, “We are always on a lookout for ways to increase our engagement with the fans. For us, they are not viewers or subscribers, they are fans (of the Cartoon Network characters). This venture is a great way to interact and engage with the fans in a different, yet effective way.” 

The theme park is a passion project of sorts for Raj Green’s Chairman Sanjay Movaliya. “Since the mid to late 90s, when I started travelling abroad extensively, I used to visit theme parks and amusement parks. While I thoroughly enjoyed them as a visitor, I also always wondered when India will have such a facility. So, when a piece of land ideal for such a project came up, I bid for it and won and started the water park initially,” he says. 

While his dream of starting an international quality amusement park had been realised, Movaliya realised soon enough that it is not commercially viable to have a water park since the operations are seasonal. He then constructed a dome structure to enclose the water park, and now Amazia, too, so that the theme park can be open for business all year round. 

Jain adds that this was one of the crucial reasons for Turner partnering the company in this venture. “Also, the park is located at the heart of the city, make it accessible for the residents, and people from neighbouring cities,” Jain says. 

Anand Singh, director, Cartoon Network Enterprises, South Asia, Turner India (Licensing and Merchandising division), adds that the venture helps bolster Cartoon Network’s location-based entertainment portfolio. “We have two other theme parks, one in Dubai and the other in Pattaya. While the attractions will provide visibility and engagement with consumers, the retail outlets will help with pushing merchandise to the relevant target group.”

Intended as a ‘daycation’ destination, Amaazia will feature theme-based attractions with live shows. ‘Meet and greets’ with characters from Cartoon Network’s most loved original programs which will be one of the highlights of any visit to the park. Amaazia will be divided into four major sections – a theme park, branded by Cartoon Network, a water park, a family recreational hub and a service apartment and retail shopping area — to ensure that there is something for every visitor and for everyone in the family.