MUMBAI: The animation studio, Toonz, has inked a deal with Mumbai-based production house Impact Vision to produce for the first time the grand Indian epic ‘Mahabharat’ in an animation format. 
The animation product will have lyrics and music in Hindi, while the song sequences will be suitably strung together to create standard half-hour episodes for television, Toonz CEO P Jayakumar says.
Impact Vision CEO Satish Mutatkar and also the writer of highly appreciated lyrics for the animated feature film Hanuman is the originator of the concept and writer of Geet Mahabharat. 
Mutatkar will be the creative director of the project. “This is a very interesting project for the studio,” says Jayakumar. “Creating an animated show that completely hinges around music is a challenge.” 
“The venture is a novel one and is part of our initiative to encourage programming with strong Indian roots alongside original shows for American and European audiences,” he adds.
Commenting on the deal, Mutatkar says, “Mahabharat is simply the greatest story ever told. With modern Animation and Music we now have the right tools to take it to any audience. And ‘Hanuman’ has already demonstrated that there is a huge family audience for Animated mythological subjects presented in a contemporary and attractive manner. It is truly a privilege to team up with a world-class studio like Toonz for a project as exciting as ‘Geet Mahabharat”.