India-China joint film venture to produce ‘Beijing Safari’

The MOU was signed at Kurming city on the sidelines of the Indo-China Economic and Tourism co-operation event attended by Minister of State for External Affairs Gen VK Singh, Prasad Shetty, partner of Strategic Alliance, a Chinese firm promoting Indian films said.

“Beijing Safari” will be directed by Daniel St Pierre, who has worked on films like “The Lion King”, and “Aladdin”. It will be made in English and Chinese and distributed internationally.

The sequel, which will be written by Oscar-Nominated writer Tab Murphy, is based on the issue of water contamination.

“We are extremely excited at making a global film with our Chinese partners. Our partner in China has an amazing computing infrastructure, which is critical for making a world class animation film,” Aditya Nath Jha, CEO of Krayon Pictures and ex-head of Corporate Marketing and Global Branding at Infosys, said.

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Jha further added that some of the biggest companies in the world have expressed interest in partnering with them as the issue is of universal concern.

Ping Jiang, CEO of Heshan Media said, China and India can jointly produce truly world class films and that animation movies have a universal appeal.

“With our Hollywood writers and director, and Indo-China production, ‘Beijing Safari’ will have international appeal,” Jiang said, adding that China has emerged as the second biggest film market in the world.

Three new joint productions were finalised during last month’s visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China.

These included “Kung Fu Yoga”, starring Jackie Chan and a film on noted seventh century Chinese Buddhist Monk Xuan Zang who travelled to India and brought Buddhism to China.

A comedy movie “Causing Havoc with Indian and Chinese” was also finalised during Modi’s visit here.

“Delhi Safari”, is the 4th highest grossing Indian film in China.

The Chinese version of Aamir Khan’s “PK” has also done well in the box-office grossing 100 million Yuan, (about USD 16.70 million).