DQ Partners with Turner on Indian Content

HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: Turner International India is on board for two sequels to DQ Entertainment’s animated feature Balkand, which premiered on POGO last year.

This is the latest addition to Turner’s broadening slate of local animation—the broadcast group has acquired or produced 40 Indian animated titles. The Balkand sequels consist of 70-minute animated features split into three episodes of 22 minutes each.

“We are very happy to partner with Turner Entertainment Networks—the pioneers for showcasing Indian animation content and we appreciate their foresight and dedication to encourage production of local Indian content," said Tapaas Chakravarti, the chairman and CEO of DQE. "Their efforts in this area have been relentless and we are sure this collaboration will generate further initiatives. This deal will help in adding to our library of Indian content and embarking on a new and exciting venture for producing Indian content."

Krishna Desai, director of programming at Turner International India, added: "Promoting and supporting Indian animation is a critical mandate of Turner in India. We have been aggressively executing our ‘Desi Toons’ strategy that includes acquiring and creating Indian intellectual property as well providing local animations, the perfect launch platforms in the form of the number one and two kids’ channels of India Cartoon Network and POGO. Kids across India enjoyed Balkand on POGO and we are sure that their response to sequels will be equally encouraging.”