Oct 18, 2012

DQE plots growth

Indian animation house DQ Entertainment (DQE) has predicted its visit to Mipcom last week will bring in about US$6m in revenue over the next two years. At the market last week, the Bombay-listed firm agreed to develop, coproduce and distribute the animated buddy comedy Raz & Benny, alongside UK-based Foothill Europe. The toon has a global production budget of close to US$7m, DQE said. It is also producing the third season of The Little Prince with French prodco Method Animation, on a budget of about US$9.1m. “We have concluded several new agreements and also generated leads for new business in the future,” said Tapaas Chakravarti, chairman and CEO of DQE. In August, the studio, which produces high-end versions of classic children’s properties, claimed it had successfully reduced its quarterly losses. Meanwhile, ATV Turkey is set to coproduce DQE and Method Animation’s 3D TV series Robin Hood: Mischief in Sherwood (52x11′), giving the broadcaster exclusive TV and VoD rights to the animated show in Turkey. The Robin Hood series has also been prebought by Global TV in Indonesia and Workpoint Entertainment in Thailand, along with The New Adventures of Lassie & Friends (52x11′). The latter has also been taken by Al Jazeera kids’ channel JCCTV, which will also air DQE’s Charlie Chaplin, The New Adventures of Peter Pan and 5 & It across 22 Arabic nations. Nico Franks 18-10-2012 ©C21Media