Cosmos-Maya partners with Turner India forDabanggthe animated series

In 2020, Cosmos-Maya announced a new offering in the form of Dabangg – the animated series, an extension of the highly successful Bollywood film franchise, for release in mid-2021.
The studio signed Turner India (Cartoon Network and Pogo) as their broadcast partner for Dabangg. This announcement comes shortly after the company’s announcement of their partnership with Disney+Hotstar for the show’s OTT release, where the SVOD platform will get 104 half hours of the premium animated title.

Turner India are frequent collaborators with Cosmos-Maya, recently having partnered for their productions Titoo and LambujiTinguji in the 2^nd half of 2020, with Titoo being in the top 5 viewed shows consistently since release, and the studio expects the same levels of success in their partnership with Turner for Dabangg. The series will be Cosmos-Maya’s latest show to release under the dual monetization model, with presence on the digital OTT space as well as on prime TV.

Dabanggis a strategic move by Cosmos-Maya as it makes them one of the first producers in the Indian animation space to make animated spinoffs starring the original adult versions instead of kid versions of popular live-action characters, increasing resonance with kidsand giving that IP a great reengagement and expansion of the original cult audience they address. A partnership with such a brand allows Cosmos Maya tremendous scalability potential within the industry with multiple similar future projects that translate into much higher revenue potential across a larger content hosting spectrum.

Commenting on the partnership, Anish Mehta, CEO Cosmos-Maya said, “The domestic and global viewership habits and patterns are changing very quickly. Hence, our deal with Turner India for Dabangg corroborates our belief in the power and value of dual monetization. The digital OTT space has become an equally viable and lucrative option as television. Getting our domestic content, especially a title as premium and promising as Dabangg out on television, especially a network as is a given for the Indian market, where television is the strongest medium for maximum mass reach. By designing projects and content with suitability for both digital and TV mediums, we are empowered create space for larger future projects with greater budgets, and create stories that are varied, distinct and suited for dissemination at a global scale, in true blue Cosmos-Maya fashion.”

The company has already established a tremendous brand presence utilising the dual monetization model for a large section of their shows over the past few years and with the parallel growth of the TV and OTT space (both SVOD and AVOD), coupled with greater internet penetration and the advent of hybrid set-top boxes, this is going to be the way to go for most high value content creators, and Cosmos-Maya is making the most of this progress.