Mogae to launch ‘Talking Comics’ on Tata Sky this week

Mogae Digital today announced that its product Talking Comics, will go live on Tata Sky later this week. The video stories will be carried on Actve Wizkids and will be promoted on Tata Sky’s default channel 100.

“Mogae has invested the last four years into creating original world-class IP in the comics space, specifically for mobile devices. Today we have over 50 titles and over 2000 stories created entirely at Mogae Studios. But with newer opportunities opening up on DTH, we have spent over 18 months creating this new genre of Talking Comics,” said Tanya Goyal, executive director, Mogae Group.

Talking Comics were actually created to give a video experience to comics on mobile. “The file sizes are kept light. There is a nice voice-over, good music, some animation, plus all the text as in a normal comic … all of which gives a more wholesome ‘reading’ experience,” Goyal added.

Stories from Tenali Rama, Mullah Nassrudin, Akbar-Birbal, Bheema, Krishna, Vikram-Betaal and Krishna series will go live in the inaugural round. Yudhishtra, Duryodhan, Arjun, Karan, Bheeshma, Raavan, Guru Nanak, Sai Baba and Gautam Buddha will be unveiled in September. Stories from the Bible, and a series of ghost stories will be launched early next year.

“Earlier, comic creators like Amar Chitra Katha created comics for paper. When taken on to mobile these comics were heavy and difficult to download. In our case, each story has 12 to 14 frames… no more… so that the comic is easy to download, and easy to scroll. What’s more, we port each frame to 48 different sizes so that 95 per cent of all mobile devices receive the comic in exactly the screen size of the device,” explained Goyal. The mobile versions of all comics are in user acceptance testing at most mobile operators and will go live this quarter, Mogae said in a statement.

Mogae is in talks with other DTH operators too for the product.

A branded new humour series, created in partnership with a leading TV channel, is being currently worked upon as a Talking Comics product - its launch is slated for August-September this year.

Mogae will also be launching a mobile-greetings product later this year. Over 2000 animation based cards have been created.

Mogae Digital is part of the Mogae Group, co-owned by Sandeep and Tanya Goyal, erstwhile JV partners of ad agency Dentsu India.