Mighty Little Bheem puts creators on growth path
Hyderabad: Chhota Bheem, the laddu-loving, dhoti-clad comic character created by Hyderabad-based Greengold Animation was launched in 2008. Since then, the nine-year-old Bheem is loved by many in India for his heroics and benevolence. And now, Mighty Little Bheem merchandise will soon make its way to the world markets. A French licensee has secured the international […]
Hyderabad: Chhota Bheem, the laddu-loving, dhoti-clad comic character created by Hyderabad-based Greengold Animation was launched in 2008. Since then, the nine-year-old Bheem is loved by many in India for his heroics and benevolence. And now, Mighty Little Bheem merchandise will soon make its way to the world markets. A French licensee has secured the international license. Story books will also be in regional languages as well. In the previous run, merchandise of Chhota Bheem included stationery, colouring books, story books, mugs, T-shirts, bags, and more.
In April 2019 Chhota Bheem’s creators launched the Mighty Little Bheem (MLB), in which Bheem is just 12-15 months, on the American subscription streaming service and production company Netflix. The made-in-Hyderabad Mighty Little Bheem is the first Netflix show from India or even from Asia. Within three weeks, it became one of Netflix’s most-watched animated series from anywhere in the world.
”No Rules Rules”, the maiden book by Netflix Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer released in September 2020, mentions why Netflix decided to pump in relatively more money to buy animation content from the Hyderabad-based company. The book, which talks about the history of Netflix, said that the no-dialogue comic show has been watched by more than 27 million viewers in about 190 countries where Netflix is available.
“When Netflix came to us, they wanted us to make something on Bheem that is not there yet. We came up with the idea of showing Bheem as a toddler. We took 18 months to work on the version of Bheem that appealed to the global audience. We not only aced the creative part but also the technology part,” says Rajiv Chilaka, Chief Executive Officer of Greengold.
Three seasons of Mighty Little Bheem are done. Each series has 21-short videos that span five to six minutes. Season 2 took six months as work happened simultaneously and Season 3 took another year. Now, it is working on the next season, and by the end of next year, it will be ready with another season. Greengold will also do special five-minute shows that tell the why and how of Dasara, Deepavali, Sankranti and Holi festivals.
It decided to keep the episodes small as it was dealing with a pre-school audience, whose attention span is small. It decided to go without dialogues, putting the onus on characters and technology to tell the story visually.
“When we were designing Bheem, I told my artists that people on seeing Bheem should feel like picking him up and start playing with him. We recreated Bheem as a toddler working on his cheeks, expressions, and eyes for that cute look. We recreated Dholakpur, the village where Bheem resides, 3D and with computer graphics. Our artistes came out with beautiful palettes and scenarios of Dholakpur to show how beautiful India is. While depicting jungles, we made sure flora and fauna looked Indian. We even matched the grass colour to look like the one we see in rainy seasons in India. Wooden toys, cradles, and all other props used are Indian,” says Chilaka.
“We did not want anyone to tell us that Indian animation quality is bad. We upgraded our quality internally, took time, and got the research and development team for the show in place. Today, Mighty Little Bheem is the global standard for the pre-school show. Some international companies have written asking us to work with them in the pre-school content areas. Some of them don’t know us but reference the Mighty Little Bheem show as a benchmark for quality and we feel proud about this,” he says.
The company now has about 630 people working for it and another 120 freelancers. It has recently added VFX wing and will add about 50 people shortly to take the total to over 70. In all, it has plans to add about 300-400 people in different roles in the future.
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