'Chhota Bheem' musical to be staged in Delhi

A musical theatre version of "Chhota Bheem", a popular animated comedy-adventure TV series, will be staged in the capital later this month.

The shows of the production, directed by Sachin Gupta, will be live on July 24-26 at the Siri Fort Auditorium here. There will be nine shows spread across three days.

Widely popular in India, especially amongst children, "Chhota Bheem" focusses on adventures of a boy named Bheem and his friends in a fictional city-state of Dholakpur.

The musical is targeted not only towards children, but for all age groups.

"It's a popular character in India...people of all age groups have that kind of energy and excitement when they talk of 'Chhota Bheem'. Any person, even a 70-year-old, is invited to watch it," Gupta told IANS.

The animated TV series was originally created by Rajiv Chilaka, CEO, Green Gold Animation. Gupta was brought on board for the musical, which consists of 40 actors and around 30 technicians, who have worked on it day and night.

"They are all my theatre company actors. It's like a Broadway kind of musical... very interactive. We are trying to explore a different medium in theatre, an interactive theatre. Hopefully, the audience will like it because we are giving it a very interesting treatment," added Gupta, who made his Bollywood debut as director-writer with "Paranthe Wali Gali" and has even helmed "Thoda Lutf Thoda Ishq". He is the CEO of Media and entertainment company Chilsag Entertainment Network.