DQE developing Ray, Bankim Chandra's works into Movies

Company will invest Rs 80 crore in India-based content.

DQ Entertainment (International) Limited, a Hyderabad-based publicly-listed animation, game art and entertainment company, is in the process of making 3D stereoscopic animated movies, both for television and theatrical release, based on legendary Oscar-winning Bengali film director Satyajit Ray and Vande Mataram author Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novels.

“At this moment, we are developing Ray’s works ‘Unicorn’ and 'Mountain of Moon’ as 70-minute TV movies. After that, we want to produce ‘Raj Singh – A Love Story’, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, as an 85-minute feature film with a mix of 3D stereoscopic animation and live action for global theatrical release. All these three movies are slated for release in 2013,” Tapaas Chakravarti, chairman and chief executive officer of DQE, told Business Standard.

Stating that the three movies would together require a budget of Rs 20 crore, Chakravarti said the company was investing an additional Rs 60 crore in developing India-based content across genres like mythology, historical and contemporary for global audience.

“We are tying up with the Al Jazeera Group in Doha and another group in Germany for an adaptation of ‘Panchatantra’. Story board for the euro 4-million (approximately Rs 24 crore), 52-episode project is being done in the US and it should go into production in two months and be delivered by the end of 2011. This apart, ‘Karthikeya’, a $300,000 television movie and ‘Bollywood Musical’ with an estimated budget of Rs 10 crore are in various stages of development, which are expected to be competed by 2013,” he added.

Read more at: Business Standard