MUMBAI: Pritish Nandy Communications has signed a five film deal with Motion Pixel Corporation, the Florida-based animation company which has the animation studio Estudio Flex in Costa Rica.

The deal between the two companies includes five 3D animated Bollywood films with Indian and international actors, songs, dances, item numbers and everything that Bollywood is special for. The first of these five films is currently in production and is a version 2.0 of one of PNC‘s most successful live action films.

The deal is worth $25 million. The deal will see PNC handle the creative aspects of these animated films from the development of scripts, movie soundtracks, including contracting top Bollywood and international stars to do voice-overs for the animated characters. MPC will handle all components of the animation through Estudio Flex.

The Bollywood film industry is one of the fastest growing film segments in the world, producing over 300 feature films a year. The animation market is a new extension of this industry and could see Bollywood‘s turnover multiply many times over simply by creating international language versions of what are essentially successful Bollywood movies. These five movies will, for instance, be put out in many languages of the world as well as in several Indian language versions.

MPC chairman Manny Bains says, "We are extremely excited to be working with PNC, an industry leader in Bollywood and my good friend Pritish Nandy. Our commitment is evident by working exclusively together in this area for years to come. We believe that taking both the multi-billion dollar animation sector and the ever growing global Bollywood market ahead in tandem could well surpass all industry expectations."

Pritish Nandy says, "We have seen some of the animation work done by Manny and his team at MPC and they will totally redefine what we know as animation movies in India. These are not kid flicks like Hanuman and Krishna. These are movies that everyone will watch, irrespective of their age and language preference. From action movies to romances to comedies and horror, we will cover every genre out here and surprise the Indian market with the quality and imagination that MPC‘s animation skills will provide these films. This is the first of its kind and you will now see Bollywood movies truly going global instead of attempting the usual crossover experiments. This is going to be a genre by itself. "

The first of these joint venture animation movies is expected to be ready for release in the first half of next year.