Shin Chan, Pokemon and Doraemon have been household names in India for several years now, proof enough of Japanese anime culture’s popularity in the country.

To share more on the growth of the genre, we caught up with Devika Prabhu, Business Head, Kids and Infotainment, Disney Star, who said that at least 50 per cent of programming on Disney’s channels is centred around Japanese anime and how it has contributed significantly to the channel’s ratings.

Talking about the popularity of Japanese anime in India, Prabhu said the genre was already popular among kids but Disney’s attention to detail to make the stories and voices more relatable has worked in their favour.

“We were able to localize it or to make it relevant to kids in India. The content has relatable kinds of relationships and family dynamics, so our viewers can relate to it.
“They've got beautiful, unique, quirky characters that are always doing something interesting and fun, but they're quite grounded as well. The classic anime has a very unique, simple, hand-drawn style. So they use a lot of handdrawn and CG animation. I think the simplicity of not having any distractions but just relatable storytelling has
worked. We were able to localize the characters,” she said.

Disney spent the most time on localization, to make the viewers understand these stories “right from softening the voices because the original voices were a little sharper”, Prabhu added.

“We've made them more neutral, so they appeal to both boys and girls. We've played a lot with local idioms when we trans-create and not translate. The idea is to bring the essence of what the story is, and what that dialogue is with Indian languages. Progressively, with each of the series we've tried to set them in different spaces,” Prabhu
remarked while reflecting on the journey of Japanese anime.

Prabhu also said that to make characters relatable to Pan India, Disney gave them roots in different states from Gujarat to West Bengal.

“They've been given those slight nuances that can appeal to a larger audience. So, you can have a mother from one region and a father from another. You bring their different accents and idioms in because they would use certain catchphrases, which are relevant to that language. This attention to detail in our localization has worked
well,” she said.

While Japanese anime is available across platforms, what gives Disney an edge is the way it localises the content to meet the Indian market expectations, Prabhu said.

“What brings the Disney difference is our attention to detail and our quality localization, our ability to find the relevant home for it, because if you need something to work, it needs to be in a kind of homogeneous environment. If you put a show on a platform that does not have that narrative, that does not have that viewer,
then it's not going to work as well.”

“Our ability to identify what will work, what is the best home for it, what will connect, when we're even scheduling, or when we're programming, which kind of narrative will flow, how do we funnel audiences from one show to another more seamlessly, are the considerations that we have. So, I think it's a mix of strategic
programming, localization and contextual promotions.”

Asked about expanding the genre, Prabhu said that she feels there are still a lot of stories that need to be told.

“We're always on the lookout. It's something that I'm personally kind of committed to because I believe that there are also many untold stories in this genre,” she said.

Talking about the growth of the genre, Prabhu said Japanese anime started with Hungama channel in 2005, with the launch of Doraemon, after which Shin Chan was added the next year. Subsequently, a lot more anime has been added over the last 20 years.

We'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year for both channels (Disney and Hungama). We would have probably had over 20 series of Japanese anime, so this has been a long kind of relationship for us with this genre. Currently, we probably have more than a dozen anime titles licenced to us,” she said.

Prabhu also said that the content is acquired very carefully for the network, post which there is localisation and dubbing.

“All of the content is licensed, it's already produced. They're hand-picked and then acquired for our network. The localization happens and then dubbing and rest. We work very closely with our licensors because this has to be a relationship of trust and respect.

“We're taking something that they have created and we need to treat it with as much respect. I think that's another reason why they are so comfortable giving us more content. Because they've seen how respectful we are to what they've created,” she said.

On content acquisition and revenue expectations, Prabhu said, “It is doing well. The fact that we are continuing to invest is a good indication of how confident and happy we are.”

Disney Kids Network has 6 channels – Disney Channel, Hungama, Super Hungama, Disney Junior, Disney Channel HD and Disney International HD. Japanese anime content is seen primarily on Disney Channel and Hungama followed by Super Hungama and Disney Channel HD.