A veteran of the animation industry CEO Toonz Media Group P. Jayakumar is all smiling today. The distribution division of Toonz that is Spain based Imira Entertainment has cracked a worldwide deal with Nickeledeon for ‘Zelly Go Gone’. The very down-to-earth Jayakumar was a pleasure to talk at MIPCOM 2017 at Cannes. He told Animation Xpress about his upcoming shows as well the MIPCOM and MIPJunior experience.
How was MIPJunior?
It is always a great platform associated with kids producers. Those who are in the kids business come and get to know about the latest trends. It is quite beneficial for kids producers because I don’t think the time has ever been suitable like this. We wanted to make sure that we grab the opportunity and also qualitatively address it.
We launched several shows at MIPJunior for example we did a Korean and Russian show. Also, we have our production facility in New Zealand, Oakland. We launched 4-5 shows in MIPJunior like ‘Smighties’. It is all about putting it all together. I think the projects are almost closed. This year has been fantastic.
How was your MIPCOM 2017 experience?
My meetings have been very good. I have been coming here since 20 years. Once you have come here for that number of times then you know people well and also how to effectively utilise your time. Selling as well as networking with creators was great.
Has any deal been signed?
We have sold our animated show ‘Zelly Go Gone’. All deals are under our distribution body Imira. We signed a worldwide deal with Nickeledeon for ‘Zelly Go Gone’. It’s a worldwide deal except for Korea with 104 episodes.
Tell us about your upcoming shows.
‘Kiku Riki’ is a very famous Russian project. Now we have launched it in China. It is doing extremely well. We are now distributing it all around the world except for Russia. It is an acquisition. These are our own production.
Toonz has acquired Imira based in Spain. It distributes third party content and all that Toonz produces. Its core responsibility is distribution. ‘Baby Riki’ is a show which belongs to producers in Russia. It has the distribution rights for certain markets in Europe, Latin America and Spain. It has projects distributed in Korea,Italy and Spain. So it is a wide range of catalogue. The Imira team is based in Spain and it is looking for a wide range of products.
According to Imira, it speaks to a lot of people in MIPCOM and has been here since long so it knows the pulse of the market and it knows what buyers want. MIPCOM and MIPJunior is the most important market for them and Imira attends around 14 markets globally.
