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Regular-article-logo Sunday, 13 July 2025

God of small things

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KUSHALI NAG Published 17.05.08, 12:00 AM

He is the little brat of the forests — playing pranks on his four-legged friends or clobbering the jungle goons with his club. Ghatothkach, Ghattu to his friends, is the son of Bheem and Hirimba from the Mahabharata. And he is all set to speak fluent Bengali, among six other languages, when the animation film Ghatothkach hits the theatres on May 23.

The high point for Ghatothkach this week though was a screening in the non-competitive section of Cannes International Film Festival.

The 100-minute film revolves around the extraordinary powers of Ghatothkach, who saves a baby elephant one day and becomes his best friend. Ghatothkach is the second animation film to roll out of Shemaroo Entertainment Pvt Ltd, after last year’s hugely successful Bal Ganesh.

Eyeing a nationwide market, Shemaroo is releasing the film in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, apart from Bengali.

“We are releasing the Bengali version in Mitra, Prachi and a couple of other standalone halls. The Bengali version will run in the plexes as well but we haven’t yet decided on the number of shows. It’s an experiment and we hope it clicks,” says Mahendra Soni of Shree Venkatesh, which is distributing Ghatothkach in Calcutta.

The film has been directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao — who had earlier made the silent film Pushpak starring Kamal Haasan and Amala — and jointly produced by Shemaroo and Sun Animatics at a cost of about Rs 20 crore, making it the most expensive animation film ever made in India.

Ghatothkach boasts high-tech 2D and 3D technology. About 600 animators and technicians from India and abroad have worked on it. For the English version, Shemaroo hired voiceover artistes from Los Angeles and Canada, while Singeetam has composed eight songs for the film.

Shemaroo’s Bal Ganesh, which was released only in Hindi, had a Rs 8-crore budget. “Bal Ganesh was targeted at kids, but Ghatothkach is a family entertainer. Not too many people know the story of Ghatothkach. The film’s USP is its Bollywood-style narrative. It’s like a Bollywood masala film — it has comedy, action, song, dance and magic. When Singeetam approached us with the script, we knew it would make for an interesting watch,” says Smita Maroo, producer and vice-president, animation, Shemaroo.

Maroo believes there’s a great potential market for animation films in India and through the regional tongues they want to hit the hinterland.

The movie-going crowd in Calcutta has already started clamouring for the cute little wonder boy. “We are receiving loads of queries on Ghatothkach and since it’s summer vacation time we expect greater footfalls. We may have both the Hindi and Bengali versions running at the two INOXes and 89 Cinemas,” says Subhasis Ganguli, regional general manager, INOX City Centre.

Shemaroo is also working on an international release of Ghatothkach.

(What is your favourite animation film? Tell t2@abpmail.com)

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