Percept to give fillip to Indian animation movies

Mumbai, March 4 (IANS) The Percept Picture Company (PPC), known for its popular animation movie 'Hanuman Returns', has struck a deal with Hyderabad-based animation studio DQ Entertainment for its forthcoming animation film ventures.

However, Percept's production deal with Toonz Animation to make the third instalment for its Hanuman series, 'The Return of Ravana,' stays.

'While we requisitioned the services of Toonz Animation to make our Hanuman series of animation films, we entered into a co-production deal with DQ Entertainment,' said Ashok Ahuja, director, Marketing, PPC.

The PPC-DQ deal is worth $25 million. Both collaborators will contribute equal amounts towards producing the three animation movies.

DQ Entertainment, which owns an animation studio in Hyderabad, will handle the production while PPC will provide the concepts and market the movies worldwide. The first of these three movies will be ready for release next year.

Although animation movie-making is a cost-effective as well as a time-consuming venture, PPC's 'Hanuman Returns' and Shemaroo's 'Bal Ganesh', released recently, have done fairly good business so far. The box-office earnings of 'Hanuman Returns' are about Rs.16 million so far and those of 'Bal Ganesh' a little less than Rs.15 million.

These movies are yet to be exploited in the electronic media and also in the overseas market.