'GV Films' enter international market with wildlife docu drama

Chennai, Jan 23 (UNI) Breaking new ground again in their ventures, India's first public limited film company 'GV Films' has embarked on a project of international collaboration with a French production company 'Les Films Du Reve', known for its revolutionary wildlife and environmental films.

GV Films would be co-producing in India for the first time a wildlife action adventure and environmental film titled 'The Little Mongoose', which would have partly trained animals playing the characters in the story.

''There will not be just the mangoose and the snake, but other animals as well like elephants and tigers among the characters,'' the French producers Francois Calderon and Mr Thierry Commisionat and GV Films representative V Ravi announced to the media here yesterday.

And like in any other film, the animal characters would be 'good and bad' much like a hero and a villian, they added.

''However, keeping in mind the animal rules in India, we have decided to shoot most of the story in Sri Lanka. In India, we have selected some locations in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,'' Mr Calderon and Mr Commisionat said.

However, the producers do not expect any objection from wildlife activists or environmentalists in India as the docudrama, as such films are called, reflects the ideals of wildlife conservation.

The budget for the film would be US Dollar 20 million, with GV Films investing 25 per cent of it. The the voice over narration would also be dubbed in all Indian languages.

Film Director Guillaume Vincent had directed films for Du Reve like 'The Besieged Fortress', which did extremely good at the box office in over 25 countries across continents, 'White Tuft-the little Beaver' and a few wildlife documentaries.

Asked why GV Films was venturing into such a project as such films had no takers vis-a-vis commercial cinema, Mr Ravi said ''we wanted to move into international arena and cross cultural investments in this era of globalisation and international collabortions in cinema also.'' ''Films of this genre have been a great hit with fans world over, with children and elders enjoying such docudramas with animal characters,'' the collaborators pointed out.

GV Films could recover their 25 per cent investment from the European markets as the response for such films there was huge, Mr Calderon said.

UNI VV GD RSA GC0935