Goal.com

29-Dec-2012 11:20:00 AM

The movie shall be released in May 2014, and the Venky's hope to have sound-tracks featuring prominent musicians from the world...

In their latest venture, the Venky’s, via their film production business subsidiary Bala Entertainment, and Bollywood actor Sohail Khan shall produce an animation movie ‘R-10’ in association with Ronaldinho, on whom the protagonist of the movie will be based.

The animated movie would see Ronaldinho star as the central character named R-10 that saves the planet from aliens using his footballing skills.

Interestingly, Ronaldinho already has a comic character to his credit – ‘Ronaldinho Gauho’ – which is a hit in more than 37 countries around the world.

And that is what led to the idea of a movie, as Balaji Rao revealed to Goal.com, “His brother (Roberto de Assis Moreira) came to me and he said can we do this (the movie) and showed me a comic on his name, already in circulation in 37 countries, and I agreed and said we should do this as an animated movie. It will be a very big project for Bala Entertainment."

Giving more details on the project, the Managing Director of Bala Entertainment said, “R-10 is a very prestigious project for us given the growing passion for football in India and the rest of the world. The movie will have the best of the global animation talent working on it. And when it comes to football, who else but Ronaldinho to do justice to a mega concept such as R-10. With a persona of a hero of millions of hearts, Ronaldinho makes for the biggest canvas for movie-making the world has seen in recent times.”

Ronaldinho in 'R-10'

Venky’s Joint Managing Director B. Venkatesh Rao also revealed in a press release that the movie shall be released in May 2014, the year of the football World Cup.

Expressing his excitement at the project, he stated, “The global release of R-10, The Movie in May 2014 will be our tribute to the FIFA World Cup that starts in Brazil in June later that year. Nothing can beat the excitement of an animation movie that features the Brazilian football superstar in the backdrop of the Football World Cup. The movie will celebrate football, the biggest religions of our times, along with one of the biggest footballing legends in the middle of it all.”

Ronaldinho himself was pleased to star in the movie, and was also thankful for the welcome afforded to him in India.

He said, “The welcome I have received in India is overwhelming – right from Mumbai to Pune. And I’m amazed at how India is so similar to Brazil. Launching R-10 in India is like launching it at home. It’s a great feeling. It’s also a matter of honour to feature in a football movie in the year when Brazil hosts the World Cup. I hope my friends and followers in India will like the movie."

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