The Gauls are coming to your drawing room. For the first time in Indian TV history, Asterix and his band will regale generations weaned on the antics of the merry Celtic warriors.
Sabe TV will start airing Asterix the Gaul, the cartoon series, from 31 December on weekdays. Asterix follows in the wake of Turtle Island, with which Sabe made a foray into toon programming from 19 November this year with a special band, Toon Time. Targetting kids in the 7 to 7:30 pm band, the channel claims to have notched up TRPs that hovered over 4 for the band from the first week itself.

Asterix, Obelix, the rest of the Gauls as well as the invading Romans will speak in Hindi on Sabe, though. Their fun filled adventures that filled those large sized comic books will now fill the small screen in animation as the Romans end up getting beat at their own games by the canny little warriors at the end of each half hour episode.

For those who came in late, Asterix and Obelix are two boisterous Gauls who live in a village that is the last French village holding out against the might of the Roman Empire. Protected by the village druid Getafix's magic potion that gives Asterix superhuman strength, all of the most perilous missions are entrusted to Asterix. He is a clever and levelheaded warrior but knows when brawn is better than brain.

Sabe has so far managed to rope in interesting shows in the toon band, with Turtle Island (also dubbed in Hindi) too making its first appearance on Indian soil on the channel. It's now time to watch if Goscinny's classic Celtic series will give Sabe the much needed edge over its rivals.