New Delhi: On the eve of Diego Armando Maradona's visit to India, legendary Brazilian star Pele signed a deal with an Indian animation company Compact Disc India Limited (CDI) to work on an animation movie on the world’s most popular game on December 5.
The chairman of CDI Surendra Kumar confirmed the same to Goal.com and answered in the affirmative.
"Yes, we have reached an agreement with Pele’s representatives. Pele is a legendary, the greatest football star with no controversies attached to him and even widely respected," informed Kumar.
CDI has been mulling over the idea to come out with an animation movie on football since July 2007. Kumar mentioned that the total budget of this project including feature film, multi-platform gaming and merchandising will be $63 million.
A Brazilian company Prime Licensing, which jointly holds the world marketing and licensing of Brand Pele alongwith IMG, shall jointly enjoy the commercial benefits of the movie.
Speaking to Goal.com, the general manager of Prime Licensing Paulo Ferreira acknowledged that the deal was inked last week. "The agreement was signed last week,” said Ferreira.
When asked as to what was the idea behind Pele doing an animation movie, Ferreira stated,” Pele’s story is both inspiring and unique and the idea to tell through different media is natural.
"An animation film is the opportunity to tell such a story to a particular audience and naturally inspire kids and keep Pele’s legend strong and powerful, generation after generation.”
As a player of USA’s Cosmos, Pele had visited India and played a game against Mohun Bagan back in 1977. Interestingly, this deal come close on the heels of Maradona’s visit earlier this month where he publicly spoke about Pele’s grudge against him.
Ferriera hopes that this deal would ignite the emotional connection of Pele with Asia and India, in particular.
"Pele brand has grown considerably all over the world, and, of course Asia is a very vital territory in our plans. We definitely hope that this deal reinforces the emotional connection with consumers in India and Asia as well, opening doors to many other business opportunities in this region.”
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