Graphic India, one of India’s leading character entertainment companies, announced the hire of veteran animation executive, Narendra Deshpande as SVP of Production and Animation. Deshpande will work closely with Graphic India’s co-founder and CEO, Sharad Devarajan and its EVP, creative, Jeevan J. Kang, to scale up Graphic’s original animation production across television and digital platforms.
“Narendra brings to Graphic India two decades of animation production experience and excellence and it’s our great honour to have him join us in our mission to create original Indian characters and stories that captivate the imaginations of audiences around the world,” commented Devarajan. “With an ever increasing number of new animated shows in production and development, Narendra will oversee our production scale-up and build a world-class execution pipeline.”
“After an enriching journey of 20 years in the animation industry, having learned a lot from each and every experience, I am now joining Graphic India with new hope and a new dream. With the intention to be more perfect, acquire more knowledge with open arms and aim to achieve great heights,” added Desphande. “With my dedication, devotion to my work and a bagful of new ideas, I had heard that if you ‘Choose a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life’, and that’s exactly what I am going to do as pleasure in work gives perfection. I believe in hard work to get desired results. No gains without pains. Looking forward to a fantastic time at Graphic India.”
Graphic India is known for creating leading characters and stories through animation, comics and digital platforms. It believes that India is home to some of the most creative talent in the world, with more than 500 million people under the age of 25 and more than 900 million mobile phone users in the country.
The company’s animated shows include Chakra The Invincible which Graphic India created with superhero icon, Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Avengers) and appears on Cartoon Network/Toonami as well as the Angry Birds ToonsTV platform where it has reached over 40 million views around the world. Phantom Films recently announced a partnership with Graphic for a live-action Bollywood film based on Chakra, to be directed by acclaimed filmmaker, Vikramaditya Motwane.
Graphic India is also working with acclaimed actor, Amitabh Bachchan on the launch of his first animated series, Astra Force, which will appear on Disney Channel later this year.
It was also recently announced that Graphic India is working with filmmaker SS Rajamouli and Arka Media Works to create new content around the hit film Baahubali.
Led by media entrepreneur Sharad Devarajan, Graphic India is owned by the US comic book Company, Liquid Comics, CA Media LP, the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group, LLC (TCG) and NYC Media Group, Start Media. The company’s partners and investors bring together decades of experience in building businesses in character entertainment, media and India.