Bangalore based Dhruva Interactive is gung ho about its next wireless release. Come November, the game developer plans to release the first in a series of games that it is developing around cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. This will be the first time ever that Charlie Chaplin and the Little Tramp™ will be appearing in games. (This is the first gaming license granted for the brand) Earlier this year in June, Dhruva secured the exclusive worldwide rights to produce mobile games and interactive content around the Charlie Chaplin brand.

The sole rights to the Charlie Chaplin brand are owned by Bubbles Inc., which is a family run business and an affiliate of the company that holds rights to the icon's body of work. Bubbles Inc recently sanctioned Canada based Krypton Imagination Inc as its worldwide licensing agency to reintroduce Charlie to 21st century consumers.

Dhruva Interactive CEO Rajesh Rao, told Animation 'xpress, "We are extremely delighted to associate with a great icon like Charlie Chaplin. The Chaplin family has been very selective in their licensing and is very careful about what it does with the brand. We worked hard to articulate our plans and concepts and to convince them that we would upkeep the values associated with Chaplin. Chaplin was a genius, his movies are magical. We want to convey the same humour and humanity of Chaplin and the Little Tramp™ character through the games we develop.”

Continuing, Rao said, "We have a multi-year agreement and we plan to develop and release 2-3 games each year and also other mobile content like wallpapers, screensavers and themes. There are few icons that match Charlie Chaplin's popularity worldwide, be it China, Japan, Korea, Russia. He was a champion of the masses, and is a truly mass-market brand… we expect a great response to the Chaplin games."

The game has been developed for J2ME, BREW as well as I-Mode and the development cycle (counting October) shall be 4 months.

Recently Dhruva's Pat Cash Pro Tennis got nominated for UK’s Mobile Choice magazine 'Best Game of 2004' award.

Commenting on the nomination, Rao said," The fact that we were nominated alongside the world's best mobile gaming companies is something we are proud of, a fitting 1st anniversary gift for our Mobile division!"

In India, Pat Cash tennis was exclusively available on Airtel and its release coincided with the US Open.

- Anand Gurnani