MUMBAI: Cosmos Maya, a Singapore and India-based animation company, has revealed its plan to explore the concept of glocalisation. It believes there is a need for glocalisation to pave the way for new ideas, concepts and different styles of storytelling. The company is all set to experiment with four international co-owned IPs in the Indian market. It has already launched Atchoo in the name of Jaadu ki Cheenk on Amazon Prime Video and the other three – OPS will be launched by the name My Bhoot Friend, Leo Da Vinci will be launched as Aryan and Berry Bees as Dabanng Girls by end of this financial year.

Cosmos Maya SVP revenue and corporate strategy Devdatta Potnis, in an interaction with Indiatelevision.com, spoke on the need for glocalisation. He said," We need glocalisation because we are so ingrained in our own style of storytelling. The kind of content that we have been consuming is the same. With the concept of glocalisation we will have new and different ideas coming in."

Stating an example of Doraemon, which is a Japanese show on an American network and one of the popular shows in India, Potnis said, "The show is a classic example of glocalisation. It is one of the anchor shows of one of the biggest networks mainly because of tdevhe way it has been localised. So glocalisation is there by necessity. We are open to looking at these but we will try and present them in a different way.”

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He further informed, "We have four IPs and as the international market will open up, which I hope will in 2020, we will be on the verge of signing contracts." Out of the four international co-owned IPs one of them is out on Amazon- Atchoo is the English name and in Hindi it is Jaadu ki Cheenk. The other shows are in production."Today we have a bank of 104 half hours of international co-productions and it will be ready by the end of this financial year. There is going to be a slight change by the time, whether it is for a commercial reason or overall from an industry standpoint. We are going to be ready with shows," he said.

Potnis believes that there is lot to learn from not only the western market but from the market in the east also. He shared his views on exploring the opportunities in China. He said, "If we look at the east, my current focus area is China; we have recently been interacting with a couple of Chinese companies. That market is so evolved and has quality offering for the domestic market."

Giving an insight into the domestic front, Potnis said, "The beauty of this industry is that a lot of us cannot predict what is coming next.  Something becomes a success and then we try to reverse engineer saying this is what we want. It is upon us, the creative studio, to bring in such novelty and make it reach to such a destination that it is familiarity with novelty. It should be familiar as you want to sample it for that reason and it should be novel to prick your interest."

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Understanding the market trend, Cosmos Maya set up its 2D division after the 3D one to cater to the demand in the domestic market. "Generally that’s not how it works. Sometime back in 2014, our first 2D show went on air, which is Kisna with Discovery Kids and now we see a shift that there is so much demand for 2D. In fact, next year there is like a massive line-up of 2D shows,” he explained.

He further said, "Initially when I go back to 2012- there was a demand from the pay-TV broadcasters that started out and the demand has been growing consistently. Of course, not everything can be continuously on an exponential growth track and yet have a CAGR which is very fancy. But then that would kind of taper when we had OTT come in 2-3 years ago. It’s still growing effectively as a quantum growth. When that demand has kind of tapered, our own OTT platform has grown. YouTube is doing really well for us; we have been looking at diversifying into other platforms. Every time there has been a growth trajectory, the level goes up automatically. We are foraying into the licensing and merchandising space as well, which will now be the next one. I think something or the other will keep coming in."

While speaking on the opportunities, Potnis opined that there is a need to take something from India to the global market. He added that licensing & merchandising is another opportunity as is WowKidz. The company will also launch another IP called Bapu on 2 October. It had made an announcement in January that the show will be out on the 150th anniversary of Gandhiji.

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