Disney goes Bollywood

The Walt Disney Company has announced that it will team up with Indian film company Yash Raj films to produce the first Disney animated film with a Bollywood spin. The film will feature the voices of Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor along with other Indian actors.

Disney will employ several local firms in India for the production, indicating a definite shift in its target market and a strong desire to broaden its fan base. The company promised that the upcoming films, though filmed in India in Hindi, will be ‘culturally relevant’ to viewers all over the world.

The film, Roadside Romeo, is the story of a dog lost in the streets of Mumbai. Disney’s trademark high-tech computer animation will be done entirely in India and the story will be infused with song, dance, and lots of dramatics - just as in Bollywood cinema (or indeed any decent Disney animation, remember The Junglebook or The Lion King?).

Roadside Romeo is set to be released next year.

Disney’s partnership with Yash Raj Films is expected to produce at least one film a year from now on, according to Yash Raj's chief executive Sanjeev Kohl, but that number could grow to up to eight films a year if the soon-to-be released film is successful. Disney also plans to make Indian versions of its own original films, including High School Musical. Actors and actresses for the live-action films will be chosen through a Britain’s Got Talent-type contest.

The collaboration seems to be Disney’s strong, final push for success in the largest film industry in the world. Thus far, the 27-billion-dollar company has not found the immense popularity in India that it enjoys in the United States. It currently has two television channels there that have not been able to compete with other American channels that use local talent and have an Indian spin.

When Disney CEO Robert Iger assumed the chairmanship in 2005 he announced that he would like half of Disney’s profit to come from overseas markets within the next five years, so the bar has been set high for this media giant. India is undoubtedly the best place to find that profit. The Indian population under 14 years old, Disney’s target demographic, is greater than the entire population of the United States, and the country is currently enjoying phenomenal economic growth.

Disney has made past attempts to grab Indians’ attentions, but the country hasn’t until recently had a large-scale retail industry. And infrastructure problems made building a Disney World theme park almost impossible. Because this most recent film will have a similar appeal as a Bollywood film, Disney hopes that it will be enough to set it up for a long relationship with the Indian market.

Yash Raj Films, founded by filmmaker Yash Chopra, is India’s biggest production company in an industry that produces over 1,000 films and sells 3.6 billion tickets each year.

Saif Ali Khan, who will voice the main dog, Romeo, in Roadside Romeo, has achieved fame for his roles in many Bollywood movies, including Dil Chahta Hai, for which he won a Filmfare Award in 2001. Kareena Kapoor, a four-time Filmfare Award winner, will voice another dog in the film. The actors are two of Bollywood’s most bankable stars.