Freida Pinto Boards Animated Series 'Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond'

EXCLUSIVE: Freida Pinto and her Freebird Films Entertainment label have boarded Kiranmala & the Kingdom Beyond, the animated kids TV show we first told you about earlier this year.

Pinto will voice the Moon Maiden, the biological mother to the lead character, Kiranmala, and will executive produce the series alongside her producing partner Emily Verellen Strom through their Freebird Films banner.

The story follows a New Jersey 12-year-old girl who discovers she might be a real Indian princess as she is swept into a fantastical world of magic, winged horses, moving maps and annoying, talking birds and forced to fight demons and solve riddle to find her lost parents and save the world.

Published by Scholastic, Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond debuted in 2018 with The Serpent’s Secret. It won several book awards, with Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond: Game of Stars following in 2019 and entering the New York Times bestseller list. A third book, Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond: The Chaos Curse, published in 2020, while a spin-off series, Force of Fire, published a year and a third trilogy, The Secrets of the Sky, launched in July last year. The first trilogy book series will be the focus of the animated series.

As we previously reported, also attached to the project are Undone maker Submarine Sublime (aka the Netherlands-based Submarine), and creative house Rebel Maverick. It’s penned by veteran animation writer and Emmy winner Michael Ryan (cooby-Doo and Guess Who?, Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny) and Sayantani DasGupta, who wrote the book on which the series is based.

Ryan and DasGupta will write the pilot with Ryan serving as showrunner. Submarine Sublime’s co-founder Bruno Felix and development head Phil Molloy will executive produce alongside Rebel Maverick’s Matt Nicholas and Nastassja Kayln, with the company’s Head of Development Jane Kim Yang and VP of Development Victoria Nguyen also attached. Buyers will be presented the project at Annecy.

Pinto is known for roles in Slumdog Millionaire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Showtime and Sky miniseries Guerilla and Hulu show The Path, and is known as an humanitarian activist. She was recently a jury member at the Red Sea International Film Festival and has been working on a series adaptation of former top Hillary Clinton staffer Huma Abedin’s memoir Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds.

“I can’t wait to bring Kiranmala to life through this series,” she said. “In every project Freebird Films takes on, we think about how girls and women from every culture are represented and celebrated. Sayantani’s books lift up the lives of South Asian girls and immigrants in such a powerful but relatable way. I would have loved this story as a young girl and we’re thrilled to be a part of it now.”

Pinto and her Freebird Films are represented by CAA and Principal Entertainment LA. Rebel Maverick is represented by Navigation Media Group and Hirsch, Wallerstein, Matlof, Hayum, and Fishman. Michael Ryan is repped by Gotham Group and Sayantani DasGupta is with Triada US Literary Agency.