Faced with mounting losses at home because of declining interest in its theme parks and a slump in ad revenues entertainment and media giant Walt Disney is looking to expand its business overseas, especially in Asia. It launched a Chinese Web portal on Sunday. At a news conference in Beijing on Sunday, actors dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse joined Disney executives as they unveiled the site www.disney.com.cn.

Disney, through the site, plans to take advantage of the world-wide popularity of its characters. The site will be linked to SeaRainbow‘s 17 Chinese language web sites, including popular game destinations ourgame.com and asiagame.com.

SeaRainbow is a partner with China Telecom, which controls 82 per cent of the country‘s bandwidth connections.

It is not clear whether Disney funded the Web site or when it expected the site to break even.

In a related development, reports say Disney is also planning to open a theme park in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Kaun Banega Junior Shaktiman, a contest idea that that Mukesh Khanna, actor-producer of the popular Shaktiman series on national broadcaster Doordarshan, has been trying to get on air on DD for a while now, will not see the light of day before December-end at the earliest.

The Kaun Banega Junior Shaktiman contest, which got initial clearance last December, was scheduled to go into production in March-April for a 13-episode shoot, but the project is still on hold.

According to Jay Mishra, executive producer of the programme, Doordarshan was initially to CO-produce the programme but new policy guidelines which do not allow DD to CO-produce a show with private producers scuppered the plan. There were also changes in the rate card which further held up things.

Khanna says that the contest will be definitely go forward and gave an assurance that it would be on air by December. "I am still not sure. We are still waiting to hear from DD. Once it gives its clearance I will proceed," says Khanna.

Asked to comment on the inordinate delay, Khanna said: "After the entries were shortlisted and production plans finalised DD said they would not be able to join us so we had to stop work. At that time promos made in association with Doordarshan had already been on air for two months and had got a good response. "We‘ve received more than 10,000 entries from across India of which 1000 entries were cleared," says Khanna, who is still gung ho about producing the contest in which he even sees potential for an annual franchise.

"The set will come up at the Film City (in Mumbai‘s Goregaon suburb). This will take lots of investments and would mean a 15-day shoot," he says. "All the pre-production preparations are already done and as soon as we get a clear signal from Doordarshan we‘ll just have to start the promos all over again," he adds.

Khanna is also working on another project, the second for his Bheeshm Productions. Tentatively called Janbaazz, the series has an intergalactic plotline on the lines of Star Wars. It‘s just got a clearance from Doordarshan and will go on air by March-April next year, he says.

On being asked about the long gestation period, Khanna said: "We need to have a good bank of episode‘s and since the production would involve quality graphics it had to be given sufficient time."

Cartoon Network has announced plans to introduce a new programming franchise Toonami with the unveiling of two feature-length Indian made 3D animation shows: Pandavas - The Five Warriors and Sinbad - Beyond the Veil of Mists on 8 September.

Toonami is slotted on weekends from 6-7 pm and in the Cartoon Night Shift on weekends at 9-10 pm It promises to offer Indian viewers with innovative animation from across the world where they will be able to watch the fusion of virtual world with animation sophistication. Other programmes in the Toonami franchise are Batman of the Future, DragonballZ and Carocaptors.

Produced by Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics Limited, Pandavas - The Five Warriors and Sinbad - Beyond the Veil of Mists which too premiers on 8 September, will be presented in an episodic format and will be aired in English as well as in Hindi.

Pandavas - The Five Warriors is an adaptation of Mahabharata, one of India‘s greatest epics. Set in the backdrop of action-filled battle scenes, the film won the National award for Best English Feature Film 2000 and was accredited as second best animation film at the Vancouver Effects and animation festival 2001. Sinbad - Beyond the Veil of Mists is the story about Sinbad, a daredevil sailor who sets out to rescue the beautiful princess Serena‘s father from evil Wizard Baraka‘s clutches.