POGO set to premiere all new 'Desi Toon'

Following hot on the heels of Chhota Bheem’s phenomenal ratings success, Turner’s kids’ entertainment channel POGO today announced its next breakthrough ‘Desi Toon’ (Indian animation), a hilarious new adventure series about mismatched twins entitled ‘Kumbh Karan’. Set to premiere on POGO on Sunday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m., Kumbh Karan is the brainchild of Turner’s original production team with the animation produced by Mumbai-based Cornershop.

Delivering on its promise of consistently showcasing Positive, Optimistic, Global & Off-center content, POGO will also premiere the colourful, imaginative and empowering movie, ‘Krish, Trish & Baltiboy’ straight after Kumbh Karan on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. Acquired from the Children’s Film Society Of India (CFSI) and produced by Graphiti Multimedia, ’Krish, Trish & Baltiboy’ weaves together a compelling array of stories based on authentic Indian folklore. ‘Krish, Trish & Baltiboy’ will be simulcast on Cartoon Network. 

“As India’s number one kids’ entertainment broadcaster, Turner has been leading the industry in the creation and development of original animation by nurturing Indian intellectual property, partnering with up-and-coming studios to create hits such as Chhota Bheem, and working with production houses regionally to create contemporary animation legends akin to Tom & Jerry. As a natural progression, and as part of our ‘Desi Toons’ roll out, we are delighted to premiere Kumbh Karan on POGO. We hope that kids will enjoy journeying to Ajab Gajabpur as much as they do travelling to Dholakpur!,” said Krishna Desai, Director Programming, South Asia, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd. 

Kumbh Karan features the hilarious escapades of identical twins Kumbh & Karan, who despite being identical are in fact the exact opposite of each other. Kumbh, named after the demonic giant from Ramayan loves to sleep and eat! Karan shares Kumbh’s eyes and big ears and the similarity ends there! He is named after the skilled warrior Karana from Mahabharata. The two live in a fictional town called Ajab Gajabpur and are the darlings of the village. 

POGO SET TO PREMIERE ALL NEW ‘DESI TOONS’; KUMBH KARAN, AND KRISH, TRISH & BALTIBOY…/2

Desai added, “Doubling the humour, action and imagination for kids on Sunday morning is our other exciting animated movie Krish, Trish & Baltiboy. This movie is a treasure trove of stories steeped in Indian folklore, and conveyed in a completely fresh storytelling style. It provides a great opportunity for both kids and parents to enjoy quality content together and augments Turner’s rich, Indian animation library to 40 local titles.” 

Speaking on the association, Ms. Nandita Das, Chairperson, Children's Film Society of India, said, "Providing quality, entertaining and age-appropriate content for kids is our mission and thus, we are delighted that our latest film Krish, Trish & Baltiboy will premiere on Turner's leading kids' channels Cartoon Network and POGO. We are pleased to associate with Turner that has taken keen interest in reaching out to the children with educative and entertaining content."

Produced by the Children's Film Society, India, Krish, Trish & Baltiboy is the captivating tale of a monkey, cat and donkey, three minstrels/Sutradhars who take viewers on an exotic journey to the land of Indian folk tales and music - Rajasthan, Kerala and Punjab. Artfully animated, each episode is in a distinct folk style, with a flavour of the local language. Krish Trish and Baltiboy was created by Graphiti. Tilak Shetty and Munjal Shroff have done a splendid job of directing the film. They have put their heart into the film and brought these beautiful folk stories to life. We are proud to have KTB as the newest addition to our rich library of films.

ABOUT POGO:
POGO, a multi-genre channel created exclusively for kids in India, launched successfully on January 1, 2004 and is distributed by Zee Turner Ltd. POGO is available in over 24 million cable & satellite homes. Within a few months of its launch, POGO became the second most popular kids’ entertainment channel in India, after Cartoon Network and continues to maintain this position today. 

www.pogo.tv is a hugely popular and highly interactive kids’ website with exciting features such as video-on-demand, blogs, message boards, gaming and mini-sites of popular shows on POGO. The website attracts over 101,807* unique visitors per month and each of them spend an average of 23.73 minutes on the website. (*Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, February-March, 2010)

Turner Broadcasting System Inc., a Time Warner company, is a major producer of news and entertainment products around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.