An evening with Rajiv Chilaka, Founder & CEO, Green Gold Animation

Introduction

On January 7, 2022, we had a fascinating session by Rajiv Chilaka, the founder and CEO of Green Gold Animation which has created Chhota Bheem. This iconic character has become the mascot of the Indian animation industry, and today appeals to kids worldwide in its new global version, Mighty Little Bheem.

Rajiv describes himself a creator, entrepreneur, investor, director, storyteller, doer, dreamer and a laddoo lover. (The character Bheem inspires children to eat laddoos rather than chocolates!) Rajiv is often touted as India’s Walt Disney for his distinguished contribution to the Indian animation industry. The soft spoken but highly articulate Rajiv has studied at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and the prestigious Academy of Art, San Francisco USA.

About Green Gold

Green Gold has a viewership of 60 million kids. The company is engaged in animation content production and distribution, licensing and merchandising. It has both national and international clients including Disney, Netflix, MTV, Amazon, Pogo, Nickelodeon, Discovery Kids. Green Gold is also active on You Tube, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media. The 800 strong Green Gold family has produced a catalogue of over 10 shows, 650 episodes, 80 TV movies and 4 Feature films in last decade. The company now operates from a state of the art 40,000 square feet facility in Gachibowli. Green Gold has developed over 35,000 minutes of content, with own IP being 27,366 minutes and IP developed for others being 7,768 minutes.

About 40% of the content is based on the character Bheem- Chhota Bheem, Mighty Little Bheem, Super Bheem, etc. It was from 2017-18, that the company began to develop content for others to derisk itself. Other attempts at de risking include developing new series such as Mighty Raju and Kungfu Dhamaka, Ninja Hatori and Rudra and new themes around Bheem. For example, Bheem in the city, launched in 2022, has marked a shift from a rural to an urban audience.

Besides developing animation content, Green Gold has also moved into merchandising – soft toys, pencil boxes, school bags, etc. Rajiv’s dream is to have his own OTT platform one day.

Rajiv’s journey

For Rajiv, it all began with the dream of becoming an entrepreneur. So, in October 2000, when he returned to India, Rajiv set up Green Gold Graphics as a proprietary concern with a small office in Kharkhana in Secunderabad. Rajiv’s inspiration was Walt Disney who had achieved so much in life despite the lack of financing and non-availability of modern digital tools. Rajiv felt that it would be great to achieve 10% of what Walt Disney had done.

Rajiv’s vision was to create content for Indian children who were watching foreign content and could not relate to them. On February 23, 2004, another investor/partner joined Rajiv and Green Gold Animation was incorporated as a private limited company.

The team realized from its early successes that it had good story telling abilities. As the team got going, there were ups and downs. For example, in December 2004, the company had cash flow problems and had to downsize from 60 to 24 people and rethink the strategy. Green Gold then developed Vikram Vetal for the Cartoon network channel. It got a good rating. Krishna (2007), a four-part series also fared well.

Chhota Bheem

It was around this time that the idea of Chhota Bheem emerged. The team worked on the idea from 2003 to 2008.Realizing that for the business to grow, space and people were needed, the company booked a 15,000 square feet office well before Chhota Bheem was delivered. But a fire due to a short circuit on March 26, 2008 came as a major setback and all looked lost.

Fortunately, Chhota Bheem turned out to be a runaway hit and gave a new lease of life to the company. The show received top rating from both children and mothers. Bollywood stars started using Chhota Bheem to promote their movies. It took a few years to come out of the mess. After that, there was no looking back for the company. In 2009-10, Green Gold set up its merchandising business after potential partners did not show much interest. (Mostly foreign characters belonging to Disney were being promoted those days.) The company hired an open jeep which moved around Abids, near Chermas where the merchandise was stocked. The buzz it created was tremendous. Then the company set up its own store on Eat Street, Necklace rod. Chhota Bheem is now available in some form or the other (toothpaste, more recently Savlon, etc) in 30,00 stores across the country. Today, in every kirana store, we will find at least one product with the Bheem logo. Chhota Bheem is today the longest running animated character of Indian origin on television. It has been the number one licensed property for kids since 2012.It is the most mentioned license across age group 1-12 years. It has a viewership of 110 million. Some 72% of Indian kids follow Chhota Bheem.

Green Gold set up a training centre for animation. But it did not click. In 2016, Green Gold set up its office in Beverly Hills in the heart of Hollywood.

Mighty Little Bheem

Mighty Little Bheem came as a big breakthrough for Green Gold. It was Netflix's first animated series from India and the fourth spin-off in the Chhota Bheem series, following Mighty Raju, Arjun-Prince of Bali   and Super Bheem. It is about an innocent but super-strong toddler, Little Bheem, and his adventures in a small Indian town. The toddler is a baby version of Chhota Bheem.

In 2016, Aram Yacoubian, director of kids and family content at Netflix, met Rajiv, to discuss the development of an animation series that would target the age group of 6–11. To create a global, universal appeal, they decided to make the show without any dialogues. The show was in production for 18 months, starting in July 2017 and led by Green Gold's teams in Hyderabad and Mumbai. The original 9-year- old character had to be converted into a toddler. Rajiv’s brief to the team was to make the character so cute that everyone would be tempted to lift the kid and pinch it in its cheeks. Dholakpur, the original setting was reconstructed meticulously and carefully. There was plenty of time and a good budget. So, the team showed a lot of creativity and came up with a world class product.

Mighty Little Bheem season 1 was released on 12 April 2019, Season 2 on August 30, 2019 and Season 3 was released on September 18, 2020. The global release has covered 190 countries. The show has become very popular across the world especially in the US, Columbia, Argentina and Chile. Though the program is distinctly Indian, the absence of dialogue and a universal theme such as Bheem’s loving bond with his mother has given it a broad cross-cultural appeal. Mighty Little Bheem has become the best performing preschool show on Netflix and the most watched video content on the official “Netflix kids and family” YouTube channel. On YouTube, there are some 4 billion views. According to the Los Angeles Times, Bheem actually gave a lift to Netflix’s financial performance.

The most satisfying moment for Rajiv came when UNESCO and Netflix decided to use Mighty Little Bheem to promote Indian culture and heritage across the world to celebrate 75 years of Indian independence. Rajiv summed up his journey so far with a powerful quote:” Warriors are not the ones who always win but the ones that always fight.”

On why he chose Bheem

Rajiv’s favourite childhood character was Bheem. There are many other popular heroes in Indian mythology like Krishna, Arjuna and Ghatotkacha. But for Rajiv, Bheem’s story was the most amazing. However, the original story, the Mahabharata had too many characters. So, Rajiv decided to come up with his own story with Bheem not as a prince but as a commoner. He narrated the story to his friends and family members including his nephew and niece. The story resonated with them.

When he launched Chhota Bheem, Rajiv could make out that Indian families were going nuclear. The children were missing their grandparents and their stories. The children were also losing touch with Indian culture and traditional values. Rajiv wanted to impart various traditional values not in a preachy way but in a friendly and engaging manner that would appeal to children: honesty, touching the feet of elders, saying namaste, standing by friends when in trouble, washing hands before eating, brushing the teeth, eating in a healthy way, standing up and fighting evil forces, etc. There were no Indian animation writers or shows in India as late as 2000. The team had to keep learning every year. Feedback provided useful insights. Kalia was even more popular than Bheem. So why not make Kalia, Bheem’s friend? Did Bheem have a father? In Bheem in the city, Bheem’s father finally appears. The idea of Chhutki, a girl’s show also emerged from feedback.

Mighty Little Bheem became popular across the world because love between the mother and child is a universal theme. Indian values associated with living on the farm and playing with nature also appealed to a global audience. There are no dialogues or translations. So, the show has a universal appeal.

On the importance of character and logo

Character and logo are the most important aspects of animation. By looking at the silhouette or shadow, children should be able to recognize the character. Rajiv chose a dhoti, the traditional Indian wear as Bheem’s dress. He wanted bright colours to appeal to children and chose orange because Bheem is Lord Hanuman’s brother. With his special looks and features and distinctive dress, Bheem has become a character who stands apart from others.

On market research

Chhota Bheem is targeted at children in the age group of 4-7. These children do not communicate that well. So, interviewing them was not an effective technique. Instead, Rajiv and his team decided to do focus groups and made the children watch animation shows and observe them closely. What shows did they like more? What were they laughing at? What made them scared? Did they like fantasy?

On the potential for Indian shows to go global

Yes. We can compete with Marvel. Hollywood movies have become predictable. In India, we have a large collection of great stories, that actually inspire the west. So, there is a lot of scope for creativity. Indeed, many of our movies are very creative and well made. Rajiv gave the examples of Bahubali, Adbootham (Telugu) and Minnal Murali (Malayalam). Just like Korean drama has gone global, India too can capture global markets. The success of movies like the Life of Pi and Slumdog millionaire is evidence of this. Language is not a barrier today. And with companies like Amazon and Netflix around, budget for a superhero series is not a problem.

On starting a business

Starting a business is not easy, particularly in a country like India. Before becoming an entrepreneur, we must understand ourselves and be clear about what we want to do. Do we want to work for ourselves or others? Do we want to be a teacher? Only if we are ready to fail, we can become entrepreneurs. Animation requires a lot of knowledge: arts, physics (gravity, how things fall), anatomy and human emotions. Some of the technology used is quite sophisticated. The business calls for both right brain and left brain thinking.

But there is a huge market with some 350 million kids in India and 500 million in Asia. With OTT, we can tap this market directly. So, the animation business has a lot of potential and the risk is worth taking.

On the use of digital technologies

Ten years ago, Netflix was a non-entity. Today, by leveraging technology, it has become one of the most important companies in the world. It is important to keep pace with technology. Technology is changing rapidly. So we must evaluate our digital strategy every 6 months or so. Metaverse is the hottest thing now. Tomorrow’s digital world will be far more interactive with many avatars The sky is the limit in the digital world.

On education

It takes a special kind of talent to become a good teacher. You have to hold the attention of students. Our ancient gurus were highly respected. But over time, we have not recognized teachers as much as we should. The IITs and IIMs have changed the face of India and put the country on the global map. Before the lockdown, Green Gold had tie ups with schools. The company plans to renew these tie ups after the pandemic is over. Green Gold also takes writer interns as there is always a shortage of good content writers especially in the kids’ space.

On replicating the success of Green Gold in other sectors

We must learn to create products. We are more comfortable being a services company. We must draw inspiration from the fact that in the most successful product companies in the world, Indians are playing a big role. Products involve more risk. But we must become comfortable with failure. We must take risk. If we are too smart and think about and analyse every possible pitfall, we are unlikely to get into products. We must go out there and dream.

On NFTs

NFTs provide a new opportunity to content owners to monetize their IP. We are still in the early days. The regulatory framework is still evolving. So, it is still too early to predict how NFTs will evolve but they are potentially a great opportunity.

On leadership

As leaders we must keep smiling and make the team believe that they are better than anyone else and they can pull it off no matter what! We are all human beings with the same pair of hands and the same set of tools. There is no reason why we cannot compete with the west.

We thank Dr. Vedpuriswar for bringing out the highlights in the form of this note