Tigeropolis – New 10-part Radio Series narrated by Ashwika Kapur
Comedy Adventure with Conservation at its Heart
Posted by Kay on December 10th, 2021
We are pleased to announce award winning India wildlife filmmaker Ashwika Kapur is the voice of our new conservation themed children’s radio comedy drama Tigeropolis. The series launches on Fun Kids Radio on Friday 14th January 2022.
This is our second major radio series commission, and once again Tigeropolis is based on a popular book series published by Belle Media.
We were delighted when Ashwika agreed to narrate the series. Ashwika is based in Kolkata. She is an award-winning filmmaker and natural history broadcaster, but this is her first time narrating a children’s series.
Richard explains, “Ashwika is a natural storyteller, she brings a wonderful sense of fun to the series. The stories follow the adventures of a family of vegetarian tigers out to save the planet. At first, we wondered how a naturalist and wildlife filmmaker would react to being asked to narrate a fictional children’s tale like Tigeropolis? Would she really embrace the notion of ‘vegetarian tigers’? We needn’t have worried – she loved the stories, and the characters. She really appreciated what we were trying to do and agreed it was a great way of introducing children to some key conservation themes.”
The series is set in a mythical version of one of India’s best loved tiger reserves – Bandhavgarh, in Central India. It’s a vast wilderness area of over 250 square miles of ancient forests, jungle and meadow and it is somewhere Ashwika knows well from her filming work.
The Tigeropolis stories are bursting with opportunities for adventure as our tigers outsmart gangs of poachers, uncover buried treasure, stop illegal loggers, and all the while are encouraging rewilding and devising clever publicity stunts to generate the public support necessary to save their beloved forest.
Producing ten episodes, in two languages (English & Gaelic), with recording split between London, Kolkata and Glasgow, was always going to be a challenge, but especially so when set against a backdrop of Covid restrictions. However, we were up for the challenge and pleased to say, Fun Kids and all 10 Local FM stations loved the results.
Script Editor is the well known animation script writer Angela Salt. Music is by Adiescar Chase, a recent postgraduate with the National Film and Television School. The Gaelic narrator (and translator) is longtime collaborator Gillebride MacMillan. Thanks also to Strathmore Studios and the Dubbing Theatre, Glasgow for their work on a complex project.
Eastern Eye the UK-Indian Diaspara’s leading news site featured the series.
These series runs until mid-March 2022 on Fun Kids DAB and a number of FM stations.
The Tigeropolis book series is available here
