Shemaroo Entertainment has extended the contract with noted writer and comic artist, Sukhwant Kalsi regarding his fun IP Moorkhistan, a series of cartoon strips for Tata Sky.

“My first contract was for two years 2017-2019, and the renewed contract is for another year, 2019-2020,” Kalsi told Animation Xpress. 

Kalsi is also the writer of the upcoming 3D animated show, Johny Lever based on the legendary Bollywood comedian, Johnny Lever. He also co-owns the IP with the production house, Yolo Media. 

Commenting on the inception of Moorkhistan, Kalsi said, “I created Moorkhistan 32 years ago for the cartoon column of children’s magazine, Nanhey Samrat which I have also been editing since 1988. The idea behind Moorkhistan was to create a fun world, the land of ‘idiots’ where only intelligent people live. It’s a non-political show and has been largely accepted by all age groups of readers, audience as this is something that kids haven’t seen till date and the concept is unique and unexplored. It’s very popular on social media and I am in talks with a few prestigious production houses of the animation industry, who wish to acquire the rights and create animated series out of it.”

Moorkhistan cartoons got great responses in both print and digital media. The official Facebook page has more than 10,500 followers. The cartoon strips are circulated daily by Kalsi himself on WhatsApp which gets viral in no time. On Tata Sky too, its viewership is in millions. 

Moorkhistan cartoon characters are also quite popular in the merchandising space, given its posters are already available on amazon. Further publication of books, T-shirts and prank gadgets of Moorkhistan are in the pipeline.

Moorkistan has also been appreciated and advocated by well known comedians like johnny Lever, Sunil Pal, Raju Srivastav, Ahsaan Qureshi, Sudesh Lehri, Upasan Singh and other industry people.

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Pokémon has been a forever charmer for over two decades and with the franchise growing strong with every passing day. Now, Netflix has announced a brand new feature film set in the Poké-world after acquiring the international rights (outside of Japan and Korea).

The global streaming powerhouse has unveiled the trailer of the latest Pokémon film, titled, Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution which is coming to Netflix in February 2020.

Though the last two films told new stories within a new timeline, Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, is sort of a CGI remake with a few changes of Pokémon: The First Movie, which first came out in Japan in 1998 and tells the story of the creation of Mewtwo and his struggle to grapple with his own existence. The original movie is beautifully animated. The visuals in the latest film do not look as appealing, but has a smooth style reminiscent of Funko Pop.

Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution originally released in Japan and Korea in 2019 and will be making its wider international debut on 27 February on Netflix.

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Marvel and Hulu announced four adult animated series an year based on characters including Howard the Duck, M.O.D.O.K., Hit-Monkey, and Tigra and Dazzler. The full cast has been revealed for Marvel and Hulu’s upcoming M.O.D.O.K. television series, which will feature Patton Oswalt as the titular supervillain.

Patton Oswalt

the new castings include Aimee Garcia (Lucifer) as his internet blogger wife, Jodie’ Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) as their son, Lou, who’s described as a kid who marches to the beat of his own drum and is an apparent loner; and Melissa Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as M.O.D.O.K.’s daughter, Melissa.

M.O.D.O.K. title serves as an acronym for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. M.O.D.O.K. picks up with the titular supervillain falling into a midlife crisis after falling out with both his family and the evil organization A.I.M. Now, the murderous cyborg must reinvent himself in order to recapture the things he loves.

Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. is set to hit Hulu later this year.

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Chhota Bheem fans can rejoice, as the Dholakpur hero is all set to come back with new episodes on POGO, this summer, after a gap of three years. 

Since its inception in the Indian animation industry, Chhota Bheem has been a game changer with a humongous fan-following across the globe. More than 72 per cent of Indian kids are aware of the show and follow Chhota Bheem in his actions and values. 

Commenting on the new development, Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka told Animation Xpress, “I am delighted to inform the loyal fans of Chhota Bheem that brand new episodes of Chhota Bheem will be back on POGO. It’s been three years since we have produced episodic content of Chhota Bheem in 2D and we all are very excited to be working again on India’s #1 Animated Character in its original avatar. About 52 episodes of Chhota Bheem will be produced in 2020 which means we are going to have a very busy year.”

After all these years, the graph of the ‘brand Bheem’ has only gone higher! It has grown from strength to strength giving birth to other successful IPs – Super Bheem, Mighty Little Bheem and the very recent musical Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure live theatrical adaptation apart from the feature film Chhota Bheem: Kung Fu Dhamaka. 

All rights are reserved by Green Gold Animation

After the 2D version made its mark in the animation space, Green Gold Animation had explored many dimensions of the IP, and also forayed into 3D animation to make the character and the stories more appealing to the younger audience.

Well, we are now waiting to see what Chhota Bheem does new!

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Name : Studio Durga

About : We are the first Indian animation studio that creates anime, or 2D hand-drawn animation in the art-style of Japanese manga comics, wholly independent of foreign collaboration. We believe in telling powerful stories through the medium of animation, and design original entertainment that can be enjoyed by teens and young adults.

Location : New Delhi

Projects : Karmachakra: Episode Zero, an 80-minute film is our debut project under this freshly-formed studio, expected to finish production in mid-2020.

1. What are the current trends you’re seeing in the Indian Animation space?

As the cultural materialists would say, artists and their art cannot happen if they do not have a stable and abundant financial background. In today’s world market however, economic strata has more to do with the league of university you end up going to rather than the brand value of the company you are likely to work for. In other words, not only is there a disparity between your qualifications and your acceptance in a certain firm, largely dependent on the job market, but also a widely observable break between your institution of training and your actual skills, largely dependent on yourself. So in the world of free information, there are many ways to subvert the system, some of which can, in a freak chance, prove to be eventually profitable.

Within this market, India has two distinct spaces. When it comes to animation, there is the corporate framework that primarily churns out kids’ content, either for the Indian audience or for foreign companies. That’s the money-raker, even in markets where there is a sufficiently developed parallel non-kids market, such as Japan’s. Alongside, there are independent small-businesses like ours, and there are quite a few, who are putting Indian animation on the world map in a way different than the corporates by taking the pains to showcase a broader and more evolved original animated product, which may or may not eventually be of interest for the buyers/distributors to license or promote, and largely depends on when (and if) they aware of its potential and foresee its commercial viability. Both the art style and variety of stories within Japanese anime have a wide appeal in the Indian animation fan base, which includes us, and so we decided to go for the same.

2. What are the challenges in this ecosystem?

There is a certain break between what we’ve grown up to admire about foreign entertainment and how most of us (are widely conditioned to) conduct ourselves in the Indian creatives industry. Broadly speaking, the socio-economic movements of say the US, UK or Japan, are both chronologically and essentially different from those in India’s history. So both the Indian market and the (nascent) ecosystem work differently for people trying to pursue creatives in a fashion other than the style of mainstream media, and more so when the work contains a certain level of integrity in terms of global aesthetic trends or emotional maturity. Simply put, there is an alienation that is felt by many creators similar to us, many of whom hope to escape it by altogether abandoning the thought of working in India and for the Indian audience. Then again, it’s the age of the internet and of a radically aware and up-to-date global audience, including Indians. It would be a waste to not leverage this phenomenon, and it’s one of the reasons why we went social although the project isn’t funded yet.

We’ve found it extremely difficult to find people with the specific skills for this project, mostly due to the lack of inclination or need to flex the muscle given the nearly non-existent scope for 2D hand-drawn animation within India for people who want to make a livelihood out of it. Besides, our product was rejected by Indian agents/aggregators (we couldn’t contact the platforms directly) who sell to every major broadcasting/OTT platform, for fear that it will be a financial failure with the Indian audience because it does not contain titillation, graphic violence, oversimplified plots and other massy elements, although they were thrilled with the quality of the product and praised us for following international benchmarks in animation. Apart from humongous production efforts that all of us at the studio share, also being the producer who has invested money in the production of this movie (I don’t like when anybody works free for me) since day 1 more than two years ago, and not having made a single penny from it till date, I have realized well that there is no other way this could have been done. Pre-destination and free will have become two sides of the same coin, and so ‘motivation’ has proved to hold little significance to me.

3. What’s one message you’d like to share with the aspiring enthusiasts?

Don’t wait for things to change, and don’t compromise or settle for less. If it’s anime or manga you want to eventually make, refine your skills towards that direction, instead of getting stuck with something you are not really into. The ‘odd-jobs phase’ is important for you to understand how the market runs and realize the value of money within it, but it shouldn’t be the arbiter of your entire career. It’s not necessary for everybody to take the path of most resistance that we have taken and create content like this within India, there is a lot of scope abroad, so if you feel you will blossom and flourish better, go ahead and do that. Almost every creative product out there has taken years of dedication and hard work on part of the creators to make it what it is, and an unbelievably long process to bring it to you. Respect that journey, and continue to try and fail, because it’s really all you can do. Don’t compete with others, compete with yourself. Build momentum.

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