Green Gold Animation’s loved Character Chhota Bheem will continue to ch
arm the audiences, this time at USA with Theatrical Release of Animated movie Chhota Bheem and the Throne of Bali on 1st February 2014.
AnimationXpress.com had a conversation with Bharath Laxmipati, Vice President – Distribution & International Sales at Green Gold to know more about the USA release, the 2014 project slate and the milestones of last year!
And the New Year starts on a happy note for Green Gold with Chhota Bheem and The Throne of Bali USA Premiere, how did this happen?
Thank you! We are very excited to see Chhota Bheem and The Throne of Bali having a USA premiere. USA is a very first choice for us when we think about International release of any of our theatrical movies. Our first cinematic movie Chhota Bheem and The Curse of Damayaan also had a theatrical release in USA.
Our digital business stats shows that, after India, USA is the second market where our online content is viewed and consumed, and I’m talking not only about the YouTube but also applications like digital comic books, video content, and educational application.
Our online store sells a lot of products to citizens in USA. For this release, we have teamed up with Reliance Big Cinemas to be reach theatres where Indians living in USA go for watching movies.
How many screens have you managed to capture?
Initially, Big Cinemas gave us about 6 screens for the release. But due an unprecedented release of regional Indian movie during Pongal festival, we now have 4 screens for the 1st week. We will be playing at major cities Fremont, CA , Norcross, GA, Niles, IL and Edison, NJ where the Indian Diaspora gather in large numbers. We are positive that our screens will increase in the 2nd week.
Please inform about the past box office collections of Chhota Bheem movies?
Chhota Bheem is doing phenomenal, as a theatrical animated movie. In 2012, the collection of Chhota Bheem and the Curse of Damyaan was of about 55% of the complete cinema box office collection of all animated movies released that year. Chhota Bheem and the Throne of Bali also made a similar collection at the box office.
I feel, India is still to start to recognize animated movies on the big screen; our goal is to release at least one cinematic movie per year and bring all families to the theatre to enjoy the show.
Let us hear the milestones achieved by Green Gold last year & what is the project slate for 2014?
Luckily, every year does bring some milestones for us. Chhota Bheem is our hero! Cinematic release of Chhota Bheem and the Throne of Bali is a grand milestone because of the recognition and positive response we received from many places and the movie being distributed by Yashraj and having a co-promotion with McDonalds India was a feather in our cap.
Chhota Bheem TV series was in its seventh season and with the spike surrounding Chhota Bheem and The Throne of Bali, the rating of the Chhota Bheem seventh season gained an all time high.
This year, we will be bringing out new episodes and TV Specials for Chhota Bheem fans. With strong portfolio of superhero’s Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju and Arjun, we are optimistic of 2014 being another good year for us.
What is the success mantra for Chhota Bheem and which are the other markets that you are looking at?
We’ve been passionate about Chhota Bheem and success followed. When we made Chhota Bheem, we didn’t think about how much success it would gain, we just wanted to create a great animation movie with characters that kids will love.
We are very happy to see kids enjoying our characters and narration. And also the parents and grandparents enjoy the show and trust us that the stories being told are suitable for their little ones.
With passing time, we’ve built a lot of business partnership’s, especially in Asia, where Chhota Bheem is already accepted as a brand. The cinematic release of Chhota Bheem in Asia is yet to come, and that’s the Market we shall be looking to strengthen our presence in.