After the success of its original home-grown IPs Akki Jaanbaaz and Roro Aur Hero, IN10 Media’s kids channel Gubbare – Masti Ke Phuwware is expanding its original content library by launching its third original animated show Akul Nakul – The Asuras. The show is based on the theme that asuras are not evil and brings an imaginary world for kids with unique storyline in mythological genre.
The story revolves around the two naughty yet good ‘asura’ kids, Akul and Nakul, who have descended on earth to change the perception of ‘asuras’ amongst human beings. The two characters are like everyday human kids, but have to fight evil when needed! Apart from these two, there are numerous interesting ‘asura’ characters – good and evil – with unique abilities and special powers.
Talking about the upcoming show, Gubbare AVP – content and strategy Brian D’Costa said, “It’s an out-an-out mythological naughty kid comedy show that can be viewed by the entire family. Keeping our commitment to good entertainment, Akul Nakul – The Asuras will teach kids to stay away from negative emotions like anger, and disrespecting elders, and inculcate moral values in them. In the show, it’s a constant war between good vs evil where good always wins.”
The animation has been carried out by Mumbai based Mot Voix animation studio. Shedding light on the making process of the series D’Costa added, “The Akul Nakul IP is totally owned by Gubbare, and Mot Voix studio produced the show for us. We bought IP from them and the development and story was completely done inhouse. It is one of our fastest produced shows. We are very keen to produce a completely new show with a unique storyline which hasn’t been explored in Indian kids’ animation space earlier. We started the production of the show at the end of August 2021, and completed production of 26 episodes in less than 10 months. Mot Voix is a new budding studio and they have done an excellent job in producing high quality content and maintaining the delivery timelines.”
Akul Nakul – The Asuras promise a fun-filled joyride for every kid. The two little boys face a lot of challenges from Kaantasur, the king of bad Asuras who wants to show that Asuras are evil, but he is always defeated when going against Akul and Nakul. Speaking about the perception of the Good Vs. Evil in the show and the idea behind choosing this theme, D’Costa explained, “The show’s focus is to see good in yourself, and for that one has to accept the things coming their way. For example, the kids should see good qualities and they have to accept their friends the way they are. Akul and Nakul are two friends who work together to make themselves better inside out. They ignore the negatives of each other and believe in being a good person. The important message of the show is to let the kids know that they can be anyone like an engineer, doctor, lawyer, but first and foremost they have to be a good person and need to develop good qualities. The show will teach them to build good essential qualities in a fun-loving way.”
He further added, “There is not even a single mythological show made on Asuras in the kids category. There are various shows featuring gods and entities like Krishna Balram, Ganesha and more but none based on this concept. If you are aware of mythology, there are good asuras and bad asuras. They came from the same lineage of Maharishi Kashyap and his wife. The good asuras are called Adithyas and bad asuras named as Danavas. We wanted to highlight the positive and good side of asuras. Everybody in India and even globally thinks asuras are bad, but it’s only their perception. Many of us think Ravana is a bad asura but he is worshiped in Srilanka so it’s all about the perception. We want to educate children about the goodness that asuras want to bring in the world. Akul and Nakul are naughty kids, they experience new things, fight evil and they are very good at heart. ”
The episodes were written by famous writer Rajat Vyas who penned various successful shows like Honey Bunny Ka Jholmaal and Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah. Famous bollywood lyricist Sameer Anjaan has penned the lyrics for the title track and popular music composer Raju Singh has composed the music for the show.
The show features various characters like Daddu, Sanya, Moongilal and Akul Nakul’s bestie from asuralok Paplu. It also stars characters from asuralok and kantaalok which includes Guru Chatur Chapati, Shantasur, Manmohani, Jalasur, Kantasur, Prachandasur, Angarasur and many more. Describing the characterisation of the show, D’Costa said, “We have about 17-18 unique characters in the show, each having their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Guruji Chatur Chapati is the master of the asuralok; he is the mediator and always helps Akul and Nakul to complete their tasks. When you look at Shantasur, he is the peace loving asur, Jalasur has the power to create tsunamis and cyclones to fight against Kantasur and Manmohini is the one who loves to dance and has the power to hypnotise everyone with her dance moves. Each character has its own abilities and qualities. We also have interesting characters in Kaantalok and we have given unlimited power to Kaantasur who is the king of bad asuras. Angarasur uses fire as his weapon and turns everything into ashes. We made the show in a unique way where the antagonist is more powerful than the protagonist which will make the show more interesting when heroes fight out and win every battle against evil. Being a pet lover, I just love the Paplu character, a pet dog who transforms into an alien in difficult situations. He is Akul Nakul’s best friend from Asuralok and he is a shapeshifter. Hope kids enjoy the show and learn various good qualities from these characters.Just like popular comic universes like MCU, at Gubbare we are creating our universe called Asura-verse with this series”
To further enhance the connection with the audience, the channel is launching several digital assets and merchandise like two HTML games – a run adventure game and a football competition – along with filters of ‘asura’ horns and fangs and GIFs that are relatable and can be used via chatting with friends. Merchandise consisting of stickers, pop-up greeting cards, school timetables, and school bags will also be launched.
On asking whether the channel is planning to take the show to the global market, D’Costa revealed, “There is a lot of interest from the Korean and Japanese market. Japan has a very ancient history of asuras, they found this concept very interesting. And we were in talks with them.”
The show will premiere on 11 September and will air every day at 1 pm and 6:30 pm on the channel as well as on the network’s OTT app, EPIC ON.