OTT has opened a new gate for the animation industry: Dheeraj Berry, Cosmos-Maya

‘Selfie with Bajrangi’, the contemporary, child version of the Indian God Hanuman, has gained a lot of traction. Cosmos-Maya’s one-of-a-kind buddy comedy is a hit with kids and parents alike. A leading studio and producer of many successful animated series in India, Cosmos-Maya has also partnered with most of the leading OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5, Voot, MX Player for its upcoming animated shows.

The show ‘Selfie with Bajrangi’ is modeled on kids’ day to day lives and beautifully highlights the Indian culture in an entertaining format. The protagonist, Ankush’s, life changes when he meets Bajrangi, the nine-year-old child version of the Indian God, who no one but he can see. Bajrangi does not just help his buddy Ankush with his day to day problems, but also comforts the millions of kids who watch the show. With 234 episodes, ‘Selfie with Bajrangi’ has now entered its fourth season, which has been bringing a lot more interesting facts for the kids and a deeper view of cultural diversity in India on Disney+ Hotstar.

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To add a new flavour in the show, ‘Selfie with Bajrangi’ now has a new character, ‘Bajrangi The Robot’, which will be a robotic version of Bajrangi with limitless powers. The animated series also launched its title track, which has been sung by singer Shaan for this season.

According to the report on Global Animation & VFX: Strategies, Trends & Opportunities (2021-25), the total value of the Global Animation, VFX & Video Games industry stood at $264 billion in 2019. Most of the segments in the animation industry are growing at the rate of 2-3% annually.

In conversation with Adgully, Dheeraj Berry, Chief Creative Officer, Cosmos-Maya, speaks about what has kept the young audiences glued to ‘Selfie with Bajrangi’ over its four seasons, how OTT helping Animation series reach newer heights, changes in creators’ perspective amid the pandemic and more. 

Could you tell us about the new season of ‘Selfie With Bajrangi’? How have you been upping the game for the series?

‘Selfie With Bajrangi’ has now successfully entered its fourth season and has added a lot more things on the platter for the audience. While Ankush is little grown up as well as smarter now, Bajrangi’s powers are getting stronger. Moreover, with new episodes we are also trying to explore different parts of India like Gujarat, South India, etc. Stories around these parts of the country will not just entertain the kids, but also help them know about the cultural diversity of India. In addition to that, to bring a new flavour to the show we have also introduced ‘Bajrangi The Robot’, a robotic version of Bajrangi with limitless powers who can now actually interact with people in this avatar unlike the original version of Bajrangi. So, the show has evolved with time and is getting more interesting and engaging in the coming seasons. Also, we recently launched the new title track of ‘Selfie With Bajrangi’, which has been crooned by singer Shaan. The song has been written and composed by Sameer Anjaan and Raju Singh, respectively.

There is a lot of pressure while elevating an already successful and established character when adapting to a series – in this case Ankush and Bajrangi. How do you ideate amid such high expectations – please give us a creator’s perspective?

With Bajrangi and Ankush becoming household names among Indian families, it’s quite a responsibility to live up to the expectations of the audience from a content point of view. As a creator, we keep in mind to explore new things in a show without losing the basic flavour of the show. Ankush is someone with whom kids make a personal connect, every kid is an Ankush, who longs to get noticed and wants a friend like Bajrangi, and we have established this connection quite well. The major challenge for us now is to maintain them along with introducing new kind of stories as well as setups with time.

How different is it working for the animation genre from television shows since you have experience working for both? How do you balance multiple hats at the same time – right from a VFX expert to a writer to production head and a creative producer?

Though both TV and animation work quite differently, I have learnt a lot from both places. Working on TV productions as an assistant director helped me learn the camera work and tricks very well, which is still helping me in directing animation shows. In addition to that, I understood the entire production process, budgeting, allocation of works, etc., while working in TV, which eventually helped me gain the holistic knowledge of the production process. Understanding animation helped me a lot for in-depth learning of VFX, especially while working on ‘Toonpur Ka Superhero’. Moreover, an understating of scriptwriting is surely an edge for a director to execute the show from story point of view and make necessary changes when and where required. So, both TV and animation have been a great learning process for me and have complimented quite well in my learning process, both creative and production wise.

As a creator, OTT has helped to bring out unexplored stories. Similarly, for the animation genre OTT is becoming the next way to bring in a lot more concepts in animation. Your observations on this genre and the potential it offers to creators like you?

OTT is the next trend in the business, which is here to stay for long. Also, the lockdown has given a boost to the OTT platforms, making them the next big thing in the entertainment industry. And OTT being quite approachable, the new creators and storytellers do not have to wait for the silver screen, but just put their ideas at the right place with the right people. Moreover, OTT is somehow minimising the star dominance in the industry, thus giving chances to talented actors from different genres. Just like live action, OTT has opened a new gate for the animation industry too. OTT platforms are now happily accepting good content for their platform, which is surely a good thing as well as motivating for the animation industry. While creators earlier were not very sure about giving more efforts in the animation genre in India, now they are coming forward with some really good content. Cosmos-Maya, too, has partnered with most of the leading OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5, Voot, MX Player, etc., for our shows and we are looking forward to many more shows and associations with them.

How does a creative mind sustain in this pandemic situation? Have there been any changes in your approach to storytelling in these times?

Though we miss the face-to-face brainstorming sessions at the office that used to be quite effective as well as interesting, there are some advantages, too, while working from home when it comes to the creative front.  While working from home, we get more time for ourselves to spend in isolation and think creatively. This practice is surely more productive in an individual capacity. Moreover, we save a lot of time while working from home, such as travelling time, which we can utilise in reading and learning more and more about what’s going in our sector in India as well as globally. Also, this time can be utilised in developing new ideas.

When everything has gone digital these days, I have learned that the digital platform is an ocean of knowledge and has a lot to offer. I have been spending lots of time watching different types of content during this period. When it comes to storytelling, we have been trying to give some message to kids for their safety through our stories in a non-preachy and entertaining way.