India’s Green Gold Studios is expanding Chhota Bheem beyond its animated series roots with a first live-action family film based on the popular franchise in the works. 

Chhota Bheem and The Curse of Damyaan (pictured) centers around a young boy and his friends as they fight off evil forces in the fictional kingdom of Dholakpur. Targeting kids and families, the film is slated for a May 2024 domestic theatrical release. 

The centerpiece of the IP is 2D-animated series Chhota Bheem, which premiered on Indian kidsnet Pogo TV in 2008. It quickly became very popular with its target audience of six to 12s, who ranked Bheem as their favorite fictional TV character in 2011, putting him ahead of international faves at the time such as Doraemon, according to Indian consulting firm Ormax Media.

Green Gold has built on this popularity, launching more than 200 episodes of the series, four animated theatrical films and five spinoff series, including Mighty Raju and Arjun–Prince of Bali. In 2019, the prodco aged down the main character Mighty Little Bheem, a CG-animated series for Netflix. Featuring a non-dialogue format and a toddler Bheem protagonist, the toon was designed to extend the popular IP to preschoolers and audiences outside of India.

In addition to successfully expanding its biggest proprietary brand, Green Gold has produced shows like Chorr Police for Disney XD and Rudra for Nickelodeon. Now the studio is ready for the new challenge of working in live action. 

CEO Rajiv Chilaka, who created the Chhota Bheem IP, is directing the new feature. He’s also sharing producer credits with Megha Chilaka (Mighty Little Bheem) and Green Gold execs Srinivas Chilakalapudi and Bharath Laxmipati.