Hyderabad
Chota Bheem, the laddoo-loving dhoti-clad comic character, was created by Rajiv Chilaka’s Greengold Animation in 2008. Since then, it has become a huge success story and is great inspiration lore for all working in the animation industry in India. Now, it’s the turn of Mighty Little Bheem. The character of the toddler Bheem has taken over the world, and it has become the most watched show in the pre-school category on American subscription streaming service and production company Netflix.
In April 2019, Rajiv Chilaka and his team created Mighty Little Bheem (MLB), who is a 12-15 month-old toddler. Within three weeks of its launch on Netflix, it became the most-watched animated series anywhere in the world. Now, Mighty Little Bheem merchandise will make its way into world markets, and a French licensee has secured the international license.
There will also be story books in regional languages as Chota Bheem had a whole load of merchandise during its run. In fact, No Rules Rules, a book by Netflix co-founder and chief executive officer released in September 2020, mentions why Netflix decided to pump money into an animation series made by a Hyderabad-based company. The book, which primarily deals with the history of Netflix, reveals that the no dialogue comic show has been watched by more than 27 million viewers in about 190 countries around the world.
Rajiv Chilaka says the brief from Netflix was pretty clear. They wanted something that the audience hadn’t seen about Chota Bheem. So, Rajiv and his team came up with the idea of Bheem as a toddler and created the world of Dholakpur, which was as Indian as it could get. They then developed a cute, cuddly Mighty Little Bheem, which aced not only creativity but also the tech part.
Three seasons of Mighty Little Bheem have already been aired. Each series has 21 short videos that run from five to six minutes. Soon, Greengold will also make small videos, again without dialogues, to tell the why and how of Dasara, Deepavali, Sankranthi, and other festivals.
Today, Greengold has been getting lots of offers from various international companies. Right now, the company has 630 full-time employees along with 120 freelancers. It has also added a VFX wing. Soon, it will be adding another 300-400 people to its rolls.