The Tintin VCDs, now in Hindi

The titles of the VCDs ? Satte Pe Satta, Hera Pheri, Chor Pe Mor, Kala Sona etc ? read like a 70?s and 80?s Bollywood release list revisited. But train your eyes on the pictures on the pack and you will recognise old familiar faces that you grew up with.

In the 76th year of his existence, Tintin, the fearless reporter with the world?s most famous tuft, is speaking Hindi.

In an initiative supported by the French Embassy in India, animation films based on the adventures of Tintin are being dubbed in regional languages and released in the Indian market, in a VCD format. While Hindi is the first, soon to follow are Tamil and Malayalam, followed by the Bengali version.

?There has been no concept of foreign cartoons in Hindi. Tintin VCDs were released last year in English and the response has been fantastic, with over 1,50,000 copies sold to date. Now we are expecting the Hindi version to have an initial run of about 100,000,? says Amit Chedda, director of Shethia Audio Video, distributors of the Karnamey Tintin ke series.

The invasion of satellite children?s channels has fuelled the growth of animation in India, feels Jiten Hemdev, managing director of Star Entertainment which holds the electronic media rights of the Herg? creation here.

?The new-age parents want their children to watch these programmes on TV, in contrast to the earlier generation which considered all cartoons a waste of time,? Hemdev points out. ?Our market includes the 30-plus brigade,? adds Chedda.

Shethia?s repertoire includes Asterix (both VCDs and DVDs), He-Man, Popeye, Spiderman, Superman and Casper. Tintin tops the charts.

Though they admit that the audience in the interior pockets might not have grown up with the Tintin comics as in the urban areas, the language barrier is breaking.

All 22 Tintin titles have been released simultaneously in Hindi. ?We were releasing one or two titles in English every two-three months. Buyers used to call up asking when the next title would be out. This time we have decided not to keep them waiting,? smiles Chedda.

The price tag is Rs 75, much less than the English version selling at Rs 125.