There is good news for Indian animation, as Mumbai-based Artha Animation is working closely with South African company My Child TV in developing a new 2D animation series called My Child.
AnimationXpress.com had an e-mail conversation with Artha Animation CEO Gaurav Malhotra and My Child TV MD Nick Wilson giving their views on the collaboration. It was for this reason that Nick Wilson was invited as the guest of honour and international delegate at GES (Global Exhibition on Services) that took place between 23 and 25 April in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi as well.
Excerpts:-
Firstly tell us something about your new venture, ‘My child’?
My Child: Teenage Mutant Azanians, a Trans media TV series, is premised on Professor Afronaut, Africa’s top technocrat, taking on the maiden voyage of his international space tourism programming Africa’s politicians and celebrities. Whilst in flight a chimpanzee is released from his cage in storage. In the ensuing bedlam the chimpanzee bites the spacecraft’s nuclear stabiliser. There is an atomic explosion and all the politicians and celebrities are mutated with cute, furry adolescent animals. When the animal-human hybrids return to earth they are viewed as an abomination of society and exiled to the land of Azania. It is here that Professor Afronaut establishes the Nelson Mandela School for Gifted Mutants. The noble celebrities of the world such as MJ, Brangelina and Madge flock from around the globe to adopt the mutants.
Artha Animation & My Child TV have collaborated on their first co-production deal for an animated TV series between South Africa and India. The South African based studio is particularly good at pre and post-production whilst Artha Animation has experience in scaled production pipelines and it is because of these synergies that we are excited about this partnership and we are further excited by the knowledge and skill transfer that will naturally happen. This is a great opportunity for job creation in both India and South Africa.
Give some more details on the association? How are the rights going to be shared?
I met Nick Wilson of My Child TV last year at MIFA/Annecy International Animation Festival. He showed me some of the content that they had developed and I knew immediately that this was a project that Artha Animation wanted to get involved in. In fact, I called up my head of operations Akhil Verma, to try and see the deal through on the spot.
As per the deal we have struck, the IP rights are owned 70:30 in favour of My Child TV globally but, in Asia the split is 50:50.
What kind of animation would ‘my child’ be? Who would be the audience?
My Child is a 2D animated show. ‘My Child: Teenage Mutant Azanians’ is a whacky satirical show in the vein of South Park, Family Guy and Adult Swim and is aimed at mature audiences’ ages 18-34 years old.
In its current form, the content is irreverent satire and borderline parody, taking its cues predominantly from politicians and celebrities. However, there has been significant interest from broadcasters in territories other than Africa and thus, long term; the universe of characters will be expanded on to appeal to a larger global audience.
How many artistes have been involved in the production? How many episodes are you planning to make?
Over 50 people have worked on the production of the show in South Africa alone; producer, director, writer, voice artists, illustrators, designers, animators, sound engineers, etc while in India alone, a team of 10 senior artists at Artha have worked on the show.
The voice cast is primarily South African and consists of top comedians, soap stars and professional voice artists. The top comedians include Trevor Gumbi, Nina Hastie, Richelieu Beaunoir, Mpho Popps and Griffy 2Trillion. All of the comedians have featured on Comedy Central Africa Presents whilst Griffy 2Trillion is the first American to appear on Comedy Central Africa having done so twice.
We are currently raising the finance but, the intention is to create a series of (27 x 7 min) webisodes (for digital broadcast) and (9 x 21 min) episodes (for traditional TV broadcast). 3 webisodes = 1 episode in duration and the 3 webisodes, which will be written with a story arc for the 1 episode.
Have you approached broadcasters with your IP?
Yes, we’ve approached several broadcasters. We are launching the pilot of the show at MIPCOM 2015. Our media partner in Africa is an online radio station called CliffCentral. CliffCentral have aspirations of becoming a content platform and we have awarded them a non-exclusive OTT licence. Comedy Central Africa is our satellite broadcaster in Africa, whilst we are in advanced discussions with one of Asia/India’s largest broadcasters. They want the content and are busy negotiating the contract. The names shall be revealed soon.