Green Gold Animation has partnered with the Telugu OTT platform ‘aha’ which is all set to launch a new animated show Maha Ganesha. This partnership will see aha launch six animated originals in the next 12 months and acquire 100 hours of content from the animation company.
Green Gold Animation is one of India’s leading animation studios actively involved in creating original Indian animation content for over a decade. The studio holds various credits under its belt including Luv Kushh, Chorr Police, Arjun Prince of Bali, Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju, Super Bheem, Mighty Little Bheem.
aha, on the other hand, brings the most amazing Telugu shows and movies with 100 per cent original content and are adding aha kids – a new segment targeting the younger audiences – with its first-ever animated original, Maha Ganesha. aha kids content will be available to existing subscribers at no additional cost. To attract new viewers, it will stream its first episodes for free so that kids can sample its content.
Maha Ganesha is all set to release on 10 September 2021, commemorating the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi and followed by more releases from Green Gold on Children’s Day, and Christmas.
Commenting on the partnership with aha, Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka told Animation Xpress, “We are glad to have partnered with aha, the first Telugu OTT platform, with Maha Ganesha. This marks the first project we collaborated on and we hope to go ahead with many more in the future.”
He further added, “It gives us great pleasure to have partnered with them on their very first kids IP. It’s a great feeling to be able to create a brand new show in Telugu. Chhota Bheem’s birthplace was in Hyderabad and the love for him has been humbling. I sincerely hope kids love Maha Ganesha as much.”
Maha Ganesha is a story featuring the Achintya (beyond thought), Avyakta (beyond expression), Ananta (eternal) lord Ganesha in a new and distinctive avatar. Revealing the storyline of the show, Chilaka said, “The show uncovers the legend of Vinayaka Chavithi. It captures a series of events that establish the significance of the festivity. It begins with the demon Gajasura’s penance and tells us the legend of the birth of the elephant-headed god; the latter’s race with his brother Karthikeya to traverse three worlds and the moon’s curse. As the show progresses, it showcases the story of Vinayaka in detail.”
Maha Ganesha is an eight-episode show and each episode spans for 15 minutes.
There are countless adaptations that feature Lord Ganesha. On asking how the new series is different from the existing shows, Chilaka added, “The amount of content that exists around Lord Ganesha did make it challenging to create a show with a different perspective. But we were clear on our approach to make the show distinctive. For this show, we realised that kids have a lot of questions as they read or listen to mythological stories. Questions that if taken the time to answer and explain, provide the learning that the tales inherently have in them.”
So we adopted a narrative within a dialogue between a kid and a priest. This provided us with the chance to address the questions that inevitably come to a kid while listening to the tales of Lord Ganesha. So this isn’t just a mythological tale, this is a tale that speaks to the kids, their doubts and questions and makes sense of a tale that might otherwise leave behind more questions than answers.”
Speaking about the conceptualization of the new show, Chilaka expounded, “Maha Ganesha has been an immense effort from our animation teams. The timeline for the project has been a challenging one for both our team as well as aha’s. Our talents from Kolkata and Hyderabad burnt the proverbial midnight oil to give shape to the show in a very short period. But I am glad to see the effort put in by over 500+ writers, animators, and artists who worked on the show, being realised into Maha Ganesha.”
We all know how Green Gold’s Bheem IP has grown into a global IP from Chotta Bheem to Mighty Raju to Arjun then from Super Bheem to Mighty Little Bheem. On asking whether Maha Ganesha will be extended in the coming days, he said, “We do realise the immense scope that remains with the legend of Lord Ganesha and are happy to look at extending the show. But as of now, we have realised the story that we wanted to share with Maha Ganesha.”
Speaking about the streaming service focusing on Indian homegrown animated original content, Chilaka said, “I think it was inevitable. With the diversity in India, the number of languages spoken, the dialects, and the cultural nuances; the focus on creating local, homegrown content for the people was bound to intensify. When Chhota Bheem was introduced, it was one of the very few Indian IPs. Today, the OTT platforms have provided an avenue for hyper localised content to reach the right audience. I believe it’s begun a tad late but the great part is that it’s begun in earnest.”
Revealing the plans of Green Gold, Chilaka added, “We are looking forward to collaborating with more and newer partners and hoping to create shows across media. I believe it’s the right time for Green Gold to push ahead as a studio and invest in the now, be it in terms of technology, media, or quality.”
Green Gold is all set to create new content in the next few months. To support the new content development, the animation studio is planning to hire 500 more developers in the next 12-18 months.