Asian Television Awards announced yesterday highly commended Indian made Bommi & Friends, the joint venture of KidsCo and Image Venture. Among the 40 odd entries received for the category of Best Preschool Education Programme, Bommi & Friends stood second. The winner wasDoby & Disy from China.
Talking to AnimationXpress.com Paul Robinson, Former Global CEO, KidsCo shared, “This award celebrates the determination of Image Venture to transform, with the guidance of Raj Masilamani Creative Director of CMP, a show that was unlikely to go anywhere to one being shown across the world in 97 countries, and the ability of Indian animators to entertain children across the globe”.
Bommi & Friends features the adventures of Bommi and her favourite pop-up book, ‘Adventures in Dazzle Land’, which she discovers can transport her into a wondrous place she thought only existed in fantasy. The program revolves around the joys of learning and the importance of friendship. Bommi & Friends is currently broadcast across Australia, Asia and Africa.
K.R. Senthil Kumar, Executive Director, Image Venture said, “We feel great about winning this position, with the fact that this is the only Indian Preschool Education programme from India for this year that came into ATA nominations and won this award! At this moment, we wish to thank all the Bommi & Friends crew members & Broadcaster- Kidsco for their hard work, dedication & support to make this programme successful worldwide. We look forward to more Boardcaster & Merchandisers, to expand Bommi’s presence in more areas worldwide”.
According to Paul the USP of the series is its charming characters, bright colours and heart that are integral to the show and the interactive learning. “Bommi and Friends has an Indian character with an international appeal and is a wonderful role model for other Asian animation companies”, Paul added.
The other final nominations for the category of Best Preschool Education Programme included- Bananas in Pyjamas from Australia, Kitchen Wars from Taiwan, WITZ (Episode 2) – Fishes Out of Water from Singapore, Run Momon Run from Indonesia.
About the work done by Image Venture, India Paul asserted, “Image Venture were extremely open to take feedback from myself, Raja and Mike Young of Moonscoop- and they kept going- it was their tenacity and openess that got them to the winning post”.
Launched in 1996, Asian Television Awards (ATA) is the Asian TV industry‘s most significant and celebrated event, recognizing excellence in programming, production and performance. The Awards comprise over 30 categories and represent the industry‘s foremost recognition by enjoying the support of every major industry player throughout the region. Determined by an expert panel of over 50 judges from across the region, the results are tabulated and audited by international auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers.