As Indian animation studios get into the original content space, the introduction of the Licensing & Merchandising Business into the Indian animation ecosystem is but natural.
Thiruvananthapuram based Toonz Animation India which has in the past few months announced quite a few original IP projects as well as co productions has shared with AnimationXpress.com that it has opened up a new Licensing & Merchandising division, with its first office in Mumbai.
Toonz CEO Jayakumar stated, “As a result of our recent multi layered deal with Marvel, we now have the Licensing & Merchandising rights to the entire Marvel range of characters for the Indian sub continent and this includes characters like Spiderman. Also our original Intellectual Property catalogue which began with The Adventures of Tenali Raman is now growing with Hanuman 2 and Geet Mahabharat currently in production. Globally Licensing & Merchandising comprises of a major part of revenues accrued out of animated properties and we are going to explore the Indian market space in L&M and do the same here”
“We will have an entire range of products and licensing deals including apparel, collectibles, stationery etc. In the case of Geet Mahabharat which will have 52 episodes with three original songs in each episode we see a tremendous scope in radio as well as Audio CDs for that property” added Jayakumar.
Founded seven years ago, Toonz Animation India has been one of the front runners in the original Indian animated content space. The studio boasts of 500 artists and besides Thiruvananthapuram, has front end and pre production offices in USA and the UK.
