Amitabh Bachchan, Priyardarshan join hands with Toonz

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 30 : Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, ace director Priyadarshan and animation major Toonz Animation have joined hands to prepare a Rupees 20 crore 3D animation film titled 'Twinergy'.

Addressing reporters on the eve of Technopark-based Toonz celebrating its first decade of operations, its CEO P.Jayakumar said that the pre-production work is over and the production of the film has commenced.

"This is a 90-minute 3D animation film in English. Bachchan cleared this story after hearing seven ideas from us. We had a three-hour discussion with him in Hyderabad where he was assisted by Abhishek and Aishwaraya. At the end of it, he zeroed in on three and finally gave the nod for 'Twinergy' ," said Jayakumar.

The film tells the tale of a royal family, united by love and divided by misunderstanding and how they adopt two twins into their fold.

The funds for this mega project have been arranged by Toonz and Priyadarshan is expected to spend a week here in the Toonz studio and would again join the team when the post-production work begins.

"The post-production part will happen in Mumbai because Bachchan is particular about the quality of post-production. The film would be released hopefully by Diwali next year," said Jayakumar.

Toonz Animation has emerged as the preferred one-stop studio for entertainment majors and its client list includes Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Hallmark Entertainment Productions, Lionsgate Entertainment, Cartoon Network, BBC, Sony Entertainment and Marvel Characters.

Elaborating on their initial years, Jayakumar said that the initial years were tough and they lost a lot of money.

"But now things have changed and our pipeline is full for the next three years. Now we are in a position to select what we wish to do and we have now started to outsource work to Korea, the Philippines and China. We are now making money," he added.

Toonz today employs 350 professionals in the studio here with a good spread of expatriate animators.

They have also set up an academy for training animators and by now they have 11 centres in the country here and their first overseas centre is now opening shortly in Jordan.