British actor David Jonsson, who was recently named as Marvel’s next ‘Black Panther’, will lead the voice cast of the upcoming animated family feature film Bollywoof alongside Oscar winner Olivia Colman and The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar.
Bollywoof is going to be the first Western-style animated feature to be set in contemporary India. It is broadly the story of two dogs and a cow, and much of that story takes place in Kolkata. The story follows Basil, a pampered pet that is a very British English Springer Spaniel who lives a peaceful life in the Yorkshire countryside with his 11-year-old owner, Luke Price. When Luke’s family relocates to Mumbai for work, Basil is accidentally put on the wrong flight and gets stranded more than 1,600 km away in the bustling streets of Kolkata.
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To survive and find his way back home, Basil forms an unlikely alliance with Santosh, a charismatic, Bollywood-obsessed Indian street dog, and Uma, a feisty cow. Together, the trio embarks on an epic, cross-country adventure filled with musical sequences, action, and comedy.
Bollywoof is already drawing creative comparisons to Pixar’s Ratatouille and Coco. Bollywoof is being directed by Frederik Du Chau, known for Racing Stripes, and produced by India’s Prime Focus Studios alongside the UK-based Embankment Films.
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So Bollywoof is not a Hollywood movie. It is an international co-production primarily involving British and Indian film studios. Its distribution in the UK and Ireland will be handled by Sky Cinema. The movie is written in English, features prominent British actors, and is financed by the National Bank of Canada. Its production infrastructure, financial backing, and animation services are rooted outside of the traditional Hollywood studio system. Bollywoof will have its theatrical release in the UK on January 22, 2027.
David Jonsson, who turned 33 on September 4, is cast as a grown-up Prince T’Challa II (T’Challa’s son) in Black Panther 3, a high-budget American superhero film that will hit theatre screens on December 15, 2028. It is a Hollywood movie, being produced by Marvel Studios, a major American film studio based in California, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Marvel Studios officially announced the film in July.
The three actors will be joined by Rhys Ifans, known for Notting Hill, Sanjeev Bhaskar of Unforgotten and Ambika Mod of One Day in the film, which is being produced by Prime Focus Studios and sold internationally by Embankment Films.
Apart from David Jonsson, Olivia Colman and Kunal Nayyar, Bollywoof also has Rhys Ifans, known for Notting Hill, Sanjeev Bhaskar of Unforgotten and Ambika Mod of One Day in the movie, which is being made from a script by Stephen Leslie.
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Bollywoof’s producers describe the movie as “a celebration of the relationship between India and the U.K., and the enduring bonds between humans and their pets.” It is expected that Bollywoof will become to India what Ratatouille and Coco are to France and Mexico respectively.
