INDIAN IP CASE STUDY INDIA’S CHHOTA BHEEM GETS BIG GLOBAL REACH

With Mighty Little Bheem going global, its creator and producer, Rajiv Chilaka, Founder and CEO, Green Gold Animation, says the IP industry of India is growing and there are a lot of stories to be told from India to the world

Chhota Bheem’s journey to the small screen was by no means an easy one. I realised the huge opportunity in our country for original Indian Kids IP content. Chhota Bheem was an idea conceptualized in 2004 itself. The industry at that time was not open to many ideas and the scope of an indigenous IP was minimal. But the potential was there to be tapped into. I truly believed that kids would connect with and love a character that they could relate to and thus decided to focus on creating IP content for Indian audiences.

Multiple pitches and numerous iterations later, we finally got the green signal from Pogo to create the Chhota Bheem show in 2007. Looking back, today the amazing love and acceptance shown by kids towards Bheem makes the arduous journey worth every moment. The love for Bheem ensured that Chhota Bheem never went off air in India since its pilot episode. A decade of Bheem entertaining kids in different avatars, the latest of which is Mighty Little Bheem. Bheem today has an audience of over 100 million and growing.

I have always believed that the love for Bheem is universal but Mighty Little Bheem was the litmus test. We put our heart and soul in creating Mighty Little Bheem. It was a departure for us as well from our conventional projects as it was our first preschool show. The entire creation process has been a brilliant rollercoaster and an eye opener for us. Creating a non-dialogue music driven show that transcended cultural and geographical boundaries has been a revelation. More so was the response to the show. It became the second most watched preschool show on Netflix USA within the first few months itself and is performing equally well in

Brazil, Mexico and other territories. Bheem today is a loving part of homes across 190 countries.

Chhota Bheem, the brand, has been growing for the last decade. When we realised the popularity of Bheem, we also realised that every kid wanted to have Bheem for themselves. Thus started our Merchandising journey. From a few comics and products, we have grown our presence to exclusive retail, modern trade, ecommerce as well as licensing. With over 100 brands partnering with us over the last decade, Chhota Bheem has consistently been among the most recognized and recalled kids brand in India.

Animation industry of India is at an excess of INR 107 billion with a projection to reach INR 180 billion by 2024. With a population of over 375 million between ages of 1-14 in India itself, this trend will only improve upon in the coming years.

Even though 70-80% of animation revenue in India comes from international projects, India’s share in the global industry is less than 1%. Immense potential is here. With the advent of OTT, the average content consumption in India has gone up from 450 hours a year, to almost 6000+ hours a year in the last 5 years. Animation has had a big role to play here. The success of Mighty Little Bheem and other Indian IPs globally has proven the importance of region agnostic content and the caliber of home grown IPs. I believe this is the right time to move forward and take our rightful place in the global animation industry.

The ease of access to global content has evolved the audiences taste and raised the standards for all creators. The quality and the ability of it to connect across regions is paramount. . The world is becoming a smaller place. And there is so much potential to do stories which are from India, of Indian stories.