MUMBAI: Give a paper and a pen to a child and he/she will surprise you. The curious-young minds grasping everything around them have thousands of stories to tell.
And who better will be able to understand this than the brand, most kids relate to? Disney channel through its new initiative titled ‘Kahani Masters’ is giving these young minds a chance to tell their story to the whole wide world.
Targeted at the kids between the age-group of four-14 years, the eight month long initiative extends its philosophy of four main key values that are: express yourself, believe in yourself, follow your dreams and celebrate family.
Elaborating on the thorough process behind the initiative Disney India executive director - marketing for kids channels, consumer products, retail, publishing and franchise, Bikram Duggal says, “Disney channel wants to help kids’ grow. If kids grow up believing in themselves, then they can find solutions. Creativity and imagination is the start of being a confident human being.”
As part of ‘Kahani Masters’, all one has to do is to let their imagination free and write a story of their choice and send. The entries will be judged by Dhimant Vyas (veteran animation film designer) and Vaibhav Kumaresh (credited for making Jet Set Go's animation promos). The five best stories will be made into a short film.
For this, the network has associated itself with one of the biggest animation company, Toonz Animation. The selected five children will go to the company’s headquarters in Trivandrum, where they will undergo a three-day workshop with the top animators. The youngsters will then direct the animators on how their stories should unfold. The idea behind ‘Kahani Masters’ is that it will help polish the flair of storytelling and detailing in kids.
The competition, which began on 14 July and run till 12 August, will be riding high on school children’s hopes across six cities. The initiative is being promoted across all Disney network as well as YouTube and Facebook. The channel will be spending 50-60 per cent of the total cost in marketing the initiative.
Come September, and ‘Kahaani Masters’ will enter the next level. The five selected stories will move into production phase, where the work of the kids will be converted in to full-fledged animation of two to three minutes. The movie will then see a grand premiere on Disney Channel in January 2015.
“With the wonderful partnership with Disney - the unparalleled story tellers in this segment, we are sure we will be able to tickle the creative bones of the kids all over the country and give them an opportunity to tell their stories and make them come to life through the powerful medium of animation,” says Toonz Animation CEO Jay Kumar.
So, all the kids out there let your imagination go wild and write an original story to mesmerise the world.
