It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Super Bheem!
Chhota Bheem is gaining new powers and getting a new storyline. Can the mighty kid woo more viewers in a competitive market?
His show on Pogo TV channel has been running regularly since 2008, currently watched by around 60 million people – mostly children – every month. Some 200,000-300,000 copies featuring him sell every year. His movies, three so far, have raked in `14 crore at the box office – modest earnings, perhaps, but commendable in a country where locally made animation films hardly draw audiences. His friends and he are branded on all kinds of children-related merchandise – 100 different products at last count with 3,000 different designs. With his impish appearance – big, saucer-like eyes and trademark tuft rising from the back of his head – and sartorial simplicity – bare torso and long dhoti – Chhota Bheem, nine-year-old dogooder in the kingdom of Dholakpur, created and marketed by the Hyderabad- based Green Gold Animation, seems an unlikely candidate to match the popularity of the likes of Mickey Mouse, Spiderman or Doraemon.
Rajiv Chilaka, 42, Founder and CEO of Green Gold and the man who dreamt up Chhota Bheem, knows his precise viewer profile. “Children between four and 14 watch Chhota Bheem, even some two-yearolds do, though the core group is between the ages four and nine,” he says. He also knows what this audience is looking for. “You have to think like a child to understand children,” he says. “Children want interesting stories told in uncomplicated fashion. They want the thrill of anticipation along with pleasant surprises.”
He still remembers the precise date on which the character occurred to him. “It was September 18, 2003 and I was reading an Amar Chitra Katha comic book,” he says. “The last page had a listing of other titles in the series. One of these was Bheem, the Bheem of the Mahabharata, the second of the five Pandava brothers. Bheem had been my favourite character since childhood – he was very strong, fond of good food, plain speaking and uncomplicated. He was a mythological character very different from those usually featured in comic books and animation films, such as Rama, Krishna or Arjuna. Suddenly, the character of Chhota Bheem, distinct from the original Bheem but sharing many of his attributes, popped into my head.”
It took nearly five years to translate the concept into reality – develop the character fully, prepare a pilot and get it approved, set marketing strategies in motion – but finally the first episode of the animated Chhota Bheem show was aired on April 6, 2008. The roles of Chhota Bheem’s friends – Raju, Chutki, Kalia, Dholu, Bholu and Jaggu – were refined as the show progressed, often in response to audience needs. Take, for instance, Chutki. “Initially the focus was largely on Chhota Bheem, but as we went forward, we realised the need for a character with which young girls could identify,” says Chilaka. “This led to defining Chutki’s role more sharply, where she would often come up with solutions to problems that Chhota Bheem would then execute.” The character of Kalia, who at times competes fiercely with Chhota Bheem, also had to be carefully