'The Jungle Book' is Boman's all-time favourite

Boman Irani, who has lent his voice to Bagga the Bear in upcoming 3D animated film "Delhi Safari", reveals his personal all-time favourite animated film is the 1967 film "The Jungle Book".

"My most favourite animated film till date is 'The Jungle Book'. It was an exceptional animation film. Animation had not developed that much at that time, but still whenever we used to see it, it seemed like there is magic happening on screen," the 52-year-old said here Friday.

"Before that, yes, there was 'Tom and Jerry'. But a real, solid animation film made in those days was 'The Jungle Book', then came 'The Lion King' and is still so famous," he added.

"Delhi Safari" is an upcoming bilingual stereoscopic 3D animation film, directed by Nikhil Advani. Apart from Boman, actors like Akshaye Khanna, Govinda, Suniel Shetty and Urmila Matondkar have lent their voice to various characters in the movie.

The film's lead character, Yuvraj, the kid leopard, was recently named the mascot of Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Boman says it is not a promotional tactic and the zoo authorities believed it would be best to make the right connection with the children.

"They (zoo authorities) thought that to only put any tiger or cheetah's poster won't establish any substantial connection. But now that Yuvi has been made the mascot of the park, it establishes a connection with the children," Boman said.

"The message of the film gets communicated when people go to visit the national park and realise there is a real danger of animals being chased out of there, of their extinction. So it's not just for film promotion purposes, Yuvi has been made a mascot forever," he added.

"Delhi Safari" is slated to release Oct 19.