‘Mowgli’ gets gritty updo

The first trailer of Mowgli, featuring Rohan Chand in the title role, presents a decidedly downbeat version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Director Andy Serkis says it is not a fairy tale, and the audience should not expect singing and dancing animals in the film.

Studio Warner Bros. has released the trailer for the film based on the 19th-century tale of the boy who grew up in the jungles of India. “We wanted to engage more closely with Kipling’s book. It is not so much of a child’s fairy tale. This has a reality to it. There are real consequences. It is definitely different from Kipling’s book and has a much darker approach,” said Serkis in a behind-the-scenes video. “There is no singing and dancing by the animals that is for sure. After creating [characters] Caesar and Gollum, this is what I was most drawn to. I can’t believe how lucky we are to have our key cast,” he added.

The studio appears to be making a major effort to differentiate the movie from Disney’s 2016 hit The Jungle Book, which generated $966 million (Dh3.5 billion) in worldwide box office, reports variety.com.

The CGI footage for Mowgli features threatening beasts such as the malevolent tiger Shere Khan, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who asserts, “My, my, how you’ve grown”.

Mowgli will release worldwide on October 19.