Mumbai: On a scorching April afternoon in 2010, little Rohin would dash home after a spirited cricket game, seeking refuge from the relentless heat. With a glass of lemonade in his hands and with eager anticipation, he'd tune into the Hungama channel for classic favorites like Doraemon and Shinchan. But his excitement didn't end there. At 5:30 pm, the delightful "Fun Gas" segment would begin, treating him to a lineup of beloved former shows like Asarichan and Kiteretsu. Despite his mum's protests about being a couch potato, he couldn't resist the irresistible charm of those timeless animes.
Fast forward to today, Disney Kids Network has seamlessly carried on the tradition of entertaining young viewers across generations with their enchanting shows. From fresh launches to new episodes and seasons along with captivating movies, the network is bringing a summer filled with an exciting blend of fun, adventure, entertainment and laughter for kids across the nation.
Led by their flagship channels from the network: Disney Channel and Hungama, kids will get to explore and enjoy new themes and characters with a diverse range of animated shows. Blending international narratives with local flavors, channels will also introduce a lively and dynamic on-air design adorned with a diverse spectrum of colors.
Indiantelevision.com had a charming conversation with Disney Star business head - Kids & Infotainment, Devika Prabhu. During the interview, she provided fascinating insights into the upcoming series and seasons of existing shows, along with shedding light on various other topics.
Edited excerpts
On highlighting the Shordaar Summer festival and upcoming new seasons of certain shows
We have a Shordaar Summer festival planned for our viewers and we have already rolled it out. We are celebrating their summer freedom and urging them to have fun and level up their celebration of summer. To complement our offering of our fan favorites like Doraemon, Shinchan and Pokemon, we have also got new season and series that we are introducing over summer. On Disney Channel, we got a new season of “Oddbols”, which is a really sweet show that we had introduced a few months ago. The show has loveable characters, with a group of friends who are always upto some kind of mischief but come together when they need to. We got new seasons of “Chuck Chicken”, “Upin Ipin" and “Miraculous”. On Hungama, we have introduced a new show called “Chhota Startup”.
On emphasising more on Chhota Startup as it sounds pretty unique compared to other kids shows
This show stems from our understanding from kids that post their two year school from home, where they were just exposed to so much at that time. We understand that children are becoming a lot more conscious and aware of new technologies, new ways of doing things around them. We have curated this special show called “Chhota Startup'' where a group of entrepreneurs. When the teachers ask them, “What do you want to do during your summer holidays?” Most kids would typically answer by joining dance class, swimming or learning a new sport or going on a holiday. But these kids they told we wanna be entrepreneurs and what that really means is they have come together along with their dog OTP, to give very simple but meaningful solutions to business problems that people in their town face. We are rolling our campaign out as we speak, our concept promo on air this week. The show is all about celebrating the spirit of imagination of entrepreneurship that this generation of kids already seems to have. They are already curious and want to do more. They have opinion on things, they are reading a lot more, watching a lot more, and they have their own ideas and are not afraid to speak up. It's a very different show from anything we have introduced and we are really excited on how it's kind of shaping up.
On Disney Kids & Hungama leading the evolution of responsible marketing to children, particularly during the summer season
Disney has always stood for responsible marketing and communication to children. That's something at the center of everything that we do. We want to entertain our viewers and we want to reach out to them in a very responsible way because we are very value driven anyway. We for instance implemented a guideline a few years ago that we would only show nutritious foods and beverages that were healthy for children and that's something that we have been following consciously around the last few years. We are careful about the kinds of products that shouldn't be excess on sugar or sodium, oil etc.
On brands leveraging the summer season to connect with a young and engaged audience
As mentioned earlier, we have tons of new content and are available for partnerships. When we make shows locally, we have the opportunity to deepen engagement for including certain brands for storylines and things like that. Over the years, brands have also learned that summer is also the key to reaching out to younger audiences. That's something anyway on their kind of plan.
On the latest developments seen in the children's programming landscape
So Chhota Startup for us is a great example for what we are trying to do. Another show that we have a new season on Hungama is “Bhaiyyaji Balwan”. This show is set in a small town in India. This season we are focusing on how Bhaiyaji is helping the people in his town to come to terms with the new world around them. Whether it is an introduction to malls or going digital with payments, ATMs or understanding how to use apps. Bhaiyaji really becomes an enabler for them to step into new India. It also connects with people because the country is evolving so fast and it makes it easier for children to understand all of the programs and the technology to which everything they are surrounded by. I think it's also one of the things that parents appreciate because we also see that they tune in to watch shows along with their kids, so we are able to bring them together.
On the popularity of Japanese anime during the summer season among kids
Anime is something which we have introduced to Hungama almost two decades ago. We have always had a very long and strong relationship with Japanese anime and we are really happy to have built it to the popular status that it enjoys today. There's a whole generation that has grown up on it. For us, it's just those stories that have been able to connect with our viewers. We have been very careful about how we localise it. The key to a lot of its success is the fact that our viewers have been able to relate to the transcreation and the localisation that we have done. We have made the characters feel very relatable, very Indian although they may be set in Japan but the language and the kind of voices that we choose is very distinctive and I think all in all, that has been a part of very strategic programming, marketing and communication and that has kind of come together to make all this fan favorites now.
