About seven years ago, a little girl called Bommi took shape in a studio near Valluvar Kottam. She had a set of quirky friends — who resided in a magical book called Libro . There was Remba the giraffe from Africa, Yip the dog from France, Taco the monkey from the U.S., Maya the crow from Spain and Boris the elephant from the U.K. The characters came with interesting shades that went against stereotypes — storyteller Jeeva Raghunath was one of the creators.
Back then, Bommi & Friends was special because it was the first Indian-made high-definition animation series meant for a global audience. Over the years, Bommi travelled the world, winning the hearts of children and adults alike. Finally, in 2015, children here have got an opportunity to be part of her journey. The 13-episode series is being telecast on Sun Network’s kids’ channels in Tamil (Chutti TV), Telugu (Kushi TV), Malayalam (Kochu TV) and Kannada (Chintu TV). The IP rights of the series rests with Media Innovation.
Bommi & Friends is telecast every day at 11 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. “The reception has been fantastic,” beams K. R. Senthil Kumar, who developed the series with Mathiseelan. “It is gratifying that Bommi has finally come home to the country of her birth. Over 150 people worked in our Chennai studio to create her,” he adds. It helped that about 30 per cent of the work was done in the U.S. — from the script to the pre-production and more. “That is probably one of the reasons the show did so well abroad. Otherwise, many good Indian shows do not get picked up by channels abroad,” he states.
Bommi & Friends was first screened across Australia and Africa, Europe and parts of Asia, in over 90 countries in 15 languages. Now, it is being screened in many other places including Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and India. Senthil says that the reception from within India has prompted them to think of creating more episodes.
