iWorld
Cosmos-Maya acquires rights to ‘The Smurfs’, ‘Boonie Bears’, ‘Little Baby Bum’
MUMBAI: Cosmos-Maya has acquired the Hindi language rights to the widely popular series The Smurfs. The series had premiered on its YouTube channel WowKidz on 19 December 2018.
The company has also acquired the English language rights of the successful Chinese franchise Boonie Bears and the same will be aired on WowKidz for the holiday season. For the pre-school category, WowKidz will begin airing content from the massively popular YouTube channel Little Baby Bum.
Bablu Dablu, the Hindi version of the show, has garnered around 400 million views on the channel.
Commenting on the acquisition, Cosmos-Maya CEO Anish Mehta said, “It has been our endeavour to provide the best in class entertainment for kids across the globe. Now with iconic global brands from The Smurfs to really popular digital IPs like Little Baby Bum to one of China’s biggest IPs, Boonie Bears, WowKidz has a diversified mix of great content and kids will not have to look for any other destination when it comes to entertainment this festive season.”
WowKidz currently provides a wide range of domestic and international shows in 8 languages to its subscriber base of more than 13 million. The channel offers an eclectic mix of shows across 20 diverse sub-brands like WowKidz Action, WowKidz Comedy, WowKidz Rhymes, and more. Apart from its brimming domestic catalogue, it also features foreign shows like Simba, a spin-off of Lion King, Jungle Book, Hotwheels, Jackie Chan, and Lilly The Witch among others.
iWorld
Subedaar puts Indian original cinema on the global map with record-breaking Prime Video debut
MUMBAI: Prime Video has a runaway hit on its hands. Subedaar, the gritty action drama starring Anil Kapoor, has stormed to become the most-watched Indian original movie on the platform in its opening weekend, cracking the Top 10 across 31 countries and landing in 91 per cent of India’s pin codes within days of its March 5 premiere.
The film, a visceral, emotionally-charged story of a retired soldier, Subedaar Arjun Maurya, wrestling with civilian life amid crime and corruption, has struck a nerve. Directed by Suresh Triveni and co-starring Radhikka Madan, Mona Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Aditya Rawal, Faisal Malik, and Khushboo Sundar, the film is already being hailed as a showcase for what Indian original storytelling can achieve on the world stage.
“Subedaar’s success is a reflection of the growing scale and global resonance of Indian storytelling,” said Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals at Prime Video India. “The film’s emotional narrative, its rooted portrayal of a soldier confronting his toughest battles beyond the battlefield, has struck a chord. Anil Kapoor delivers an acting masterclass, while Suresh Triveni’s solid direction and great performances from the ensemble cast have resulted in love and appreciation from customers across the world.”
Kapoor, 62, has been here before, but rarely at this altitude. Written by Triveni and Prajwal Chandrashekar, with dialogues by Triveni, Saurabh Dwivedi, and Chandrashekar, the film is a production by Opening Image Films in association with Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network (AKFCN), produced by Vikram Malhotra, Kapoor, and Triveni.
Subedaar streams exclusively on Prime Video in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu across India, and in over 240 countries and territories worldwide.
For Prime Video, the numbers tell the real story: one weekend, one film, a global footprint, and a very loud signal that Indian original cinema is no longer just travelling well. It’s arriving.
