Co-produced by Bangalore based Kahani World and Accel Animation, Chennai, 3D animation TV Series ‘Raju the Rickshaw‘ is all set to launch this year. Targeted at 2-6 years age group, the series consists of 78 episodes of 7 minutes each. Season 1 of Raju is in post production and production of season 2 will be completed by April 2011. To market the series, Cyber Group Studios has been appointed and they have been to some of the major international markets where a lot of interest has already been shown in the series.
The excitement and appeal of Raju (A rickshaw personified) as a new pre-school icon are all captured in this show. The story follows the fun-filled adventures of ‘Raju the Rickshaw‘ and his friends, Reena and Ali in Funpur.
Talking to AnimationXpress.com Kahani World‘s spokesperson shares, “Several industry experts globally have been consulted at the development stage of this show and ‘Raju the Rickshaw‘ has an acknowledged global appeal. It is not a channel commissioned show so no channel has “partnered” in the development. Accel has produced this as a producer with Kahani World based on their mutual conviction about its appeal and inherent aesthetic.”
Accel Animation owns the rights of ‘Raju the Rickshaw‘ property for the next 30 years. S. Muralidharan, CTO, Accel Animation shares, “The IP is owned by Kahani World but we (Accel Animation) are on a long term license for thirty years with Kahani World for this property. We have already completed 52 episodes out of 78 and the remaining will be done by April 2011. We are going to launch this property at MIPTV on April 4, 2011”.
Accel has a dedicated force of high end CGI talent working on the production of the series. Numbers vary across pre production to production and across disciplines from building assets to animation to lighting and composting etc. The current team is 80 people strong. “It is an HD quality show and hence the talent deployed has to perform at the cutting edge to bring the story to life!” Kahani World‘s spokesperson asserts.
About working with Accel Animation the spokesperson says, “We have worked cohesively, as a team. Our involvement is to provide the concept of the show, design the characters, describe the world, write the show and creatively bring it together, firmly keeping our focus on the 2 to 6 age group. Accel has developed the characters; the world – FUNPUR and brought this alive through CGI. They have been professional; creatively doing a wonderful job and technically have constantly been pushing the bar to make this a high performance show”.
Kahani World has a variety of shows in advanced development. 2011 their focus is on completing ‘Raju the Rickshaw‘ and they are also looking to work on other products progressively. Kahani World is also set to release merchandise based on this series as it “eminently lends itself to a line of merchandise and licensing options.”