Thakurmar Jhuli (Grandmother’s bag of stories) a locally created animated show in flash is going great guns on Alpha Bangla. Created by Kolkata based Dawsen Infotech, the show which aired its 82nd episode last week has been garnering an average rating of 7 for the past 16 months in the 4-14 C&S category for Kolkata & RWB (Rest of West Bengal) regions.
The show features Thakurma (Grandmother) who narrates new stories every week to children. The stories generally revolve around Ghosts, Demons, Animals, Kings and Queens and each story has a moral.
Dawsen Infotech CEO, V C Bhalotia tells Animation ‘xpress, “Our first animated show on air is Thakurmar Jhuli which we are airing since August 2003 regularly without break on a weekly basis and by end March 2005 we will be airing our 85th Episode. The show was initially designed for maximum 26 weeks i.e. on air till February,2004. However the immense popularity of the programme had ensured that the programme will see the substantial portion of 2006, if not 2007”
“Dawsen has been regularly delivering an average of 20 minutes a week with a team of around 50 artists” he adds.
Shubhojit Ganguly, AVP Programming and Marketing, Alpha Bangla says ” The show is working well because it offers 2 things. Firstly the stories are part of Bengali culture, they are stories that have been narrated by grandmothers and handed down over ages from generation to generation, secondly the animation for the show is very simple and it has an inherent appeal for children”
Adds Anuradha Chakravarty from Alpha Bangla ad sales team in Mumbai,”Heinz and J&J are major buyers and maximum number of spot buys for Kohinoor category are for Thakurmar Jhuli”
While most animation studios struggle to work out a costing formula for making local content, Dawsen has already announced its next titled Tuntuni (a show about a bird and its animal friends in Indian scenario) and is in negotitations with regional broadcasters.
The success of Thakurmar Jhuli on a regional Indian channel makes one think, Is Flash the way forward for those aspiring to create local content in animation?