Pre-teens and teenagers in the US have been hung up on a made-for-TV musical, High School Musical, reports Sachin Kalbag.
WASHINGTON DC: Since January this year, pre-teens and teenagers in the United States have been hung up on just one thing - a made-for-TV musical called, simply, High School Musical.
Thanks to the craze, 18-year-old actors Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens are now household names, and the musical’s soundtrack is at the top of the charts almost everywhere.
Now, Disney has decided to launch the very same musical as a Hindi movie later this year.
The movie, which will have local Bollywood stars, will also feature the works of specially-commissioned lyricists and singers in Mumbai. Disney executives are tight-lipped about divulging any more information, but told DNA that India is one of the many countries the musical will go to this year. China and Japan are the other Asian countries Disney has chosen to launch the musical as a locally-dubbed movie. Disney executives feel that India is the only country, apart from the US, where a musical like this has a great chance of success as most movies made here have songs as part of the central theme.
Disney Channel Worldwide Rich Ross told The Wall Street Journal on Friday: “We’ve never had a TV product that’s become this big a property so quickly.” How successful the show has become in the US can gauged by these figures: The movie has been aired on TV 12 times, and has garnered 3.65 crore viewers, of which 1.1 crore were from the age group 9-14, and more than 1 crore were from 6 to 11.
A novel based on the made-for-TV movie released last week, has already become a bestseller, and the soundtrack has reached 27 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. While Disney movies have always done well in India in their dubbed format, this is the first time that a leading entertainment company has decided to franchise a US musical into a Hindi movie.
Disney hits up until now include animated features such as The Lion King, Alladin, Toy Story, and A Bug’s Life. However, this is Disney Channel’s first foray into the Indian big screen.
Disney already has a television presence in India with three channels airing live-action and animated shows dubbed in Hindi.
The plot
Troy (Zac Efron) is a basketball star coached by his father at East High when he meets cute, brainy Gabrielle (Vanessa Anne Hudgens). Sparks fly when they come together while auditioning for their school’s musical. Of course, there are problems galore, with both Troy and Gabrielle facing a lot of opposition from fellow students. How their romance finally fructifies is the main plot.
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