Kerala company to produce toon version of 'Mahabharat'

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 6 (IANS) Kerala-based Toonz, Asia's leading animation studio, has tied up with Impact Vision of Mumbai to produce "Geet Mahabharat", an animated musical version of the grand Indian epic in Hindi.

The song sequences will be suitably strung together to create standard 30-minute episodes for television, Toonz CEO P. Jayakumar announced here Friday.

Satish Mutatkar, CEO of Impact Vision, is the creative director for the project.

"This is a very interesting project for us, because creating an animated show that completely hinges around music is a challenge," said Jayakumar.

"The venture is a novel one and is part of our initiative to encourage programming with strong Indian roots alongside original shows for American and European audiences."

Mutatkar said: "Mahabharat is simply the greatest story ever told. With modern animation and music, we now have the right tools to take it to any audience.

Operating out of the Technopark campus here since 1999, Toonz is Asia's premier multimedia studio and the most advanced studio to open in India since it emerged as a player in the international animation industry.

Toonz is working on a slew of projects with top-notch production houses and entertainment companies across the globe, including industry giants in the US, Britain and Japan.

It also maintains an extensive library of original content and is currently working on its home productions like "The Adventures of Hanuman", "Paddy's Pages", and "Frogskool", in addition to projects for overseas clients.

Impact Vision has over the past 12 years produced TV serials, docudramas and more than 25 documentaries.