If you are used to seeing a bare-chested, dhoti-clad Chhota Bheem, be prepared for a surprise when you book a ticket to his latest outing Himayalan Adventure, currently running in theatres.
“He has gone on a skiing trip in the mountains, so he had to be appropriately dressed,” says the film’s director-producer Rajiv Chilaka, founder and CEO of Green Gold Animation. Bheem, therefore, sports ski pants, snow boots, scarf and snow goggles. Chutki’s village belle look is also gone. Her normally plaited hair is short and left open, and like the rest of the Dholakpur gang — Raju, Kalia, Princess Indumati, Dholu and Bholu — she too is in chic skiing gear.
“So much content has been produced on Chhota Bheem (two feature films and 250-plus episodes on TV) that we were faced with the challenge of producing something new. So we thought of sending Bheem to the mountains. But we had to be careful about keeping the colour scheme similar so as not to confuse the viewers. So orange dhoti gave way to orange ski pants and so on.”
In the film, Manali is being terrorised by the sneaky dacoit Hirimbak. Finally, it is up to Chhota Bheem to save the day.
It took the production team 18 months to get the film ready after the script was finalised. “We had 325 people working on it. A lot of them were Bengalis, with the pre-production director Anirban Majumdar playing a key role,” smiles Chilaka.
Himalayan Adventure, made on a budget of Rs 6 crore, has released on 473 screens. “This is our biggest release ever, both in terms of budget and reach.” The two earlier films — The Curse of Damyaan and The Throne of Bali — released in 252 and 350 screens respectively.
Chilaka becomes emotional on being asked about Chhota Bheem’s phenomenal success. “When we locked the idea and the concept in 2003, who knew the little boy would become this big?” Even Raju, one of Bheem’s sidekicks, has gone on to have a TV series and a feature film on his own steam.
Chhota Bheem has crossed boundaries and has little fans yearning for a piece of Dholakpur action across south Asia — Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan — and beyond. “It is a big hit in Indonesia. We are planning to release merchandise there soon. It has just started airing in South Africa. It is also available on some platforms in the US.” Bheem speaks in local languages in other countries. In Singapore, he speaks Tamil, in Thailand Thai, in Sri Lanka Sinhalese and in Indonesia Bahasa.
While work has started on the next film, its budget and scale will be decided once the box office gives its verdict on Bheem’s ski outing.
Sudeshna Banerjee
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