The Donkey King

Mangu is an insignificant donkey washer who dreams of fame and riches. Though his uncle, Pehelwan Chacha discourages his dreams, the spirit of his father Changu often appears to tell him to keep dreaming. Mangu's land is ruled by the elite Big Cats who live off the herbivores. Many protests are often held at this by the public, which are futile. While delivering his laundry, Mangu enters the castle and meets the crafty senior adviser, Miss Fitna. Meanwhile the aging King Badshah Khan informs Fitna that he wishes to forfeit the crown to his incompetent and self absorbed child Shahzada Khan. When Fitna influences the animals against this through propaganda, the King decides on a form of 'democracy', thinking that no one will be able to stand up to Shahzada.

Miss Fitna and her cohorts vainly look for a suitable candidate. Then Miss Fitna remembers the naive donkey who will be easily influenced. Mangu agrees to the campaign after encouragement from his father. He and Shahzada compete for the crown through many hilarious ways, like press talks and rap battles, while Fitna supports Mangu through the news' influence and reverse psychology. Eventually, Mangu makes an inspirational speech from the bottom of his heart that wins over the animals. The Cats are exiled and Mangu starts to live a life of luxury in the palace and neglects his duties. Meanwhile Fitna secretly has an agenda of her own. She serves the human Ringmaster and kidnaps the animals for his circus. Mangu accidentally stumbles upon their prison. He realizes his mistakes, apologizes to the animals and stops Fitna's party. Fitna falls off the cliff into the sea. The public and the Cats fix their problems and accept Mangu as their King. Meanwhile, Changu's spirit moves on, convinced his son achieved his dreams.

• Afzal Khan as Jan Mangu, a washer-donkey and king-to-be of Azadnagar
• Hina Dilpazeer as Miss Fitna, a red fox who is personal secretary to the king
• Ghulam Mohiuddin as Badshah Khan, a lion who is the king of Azadnagar
• Adeel Hashmi as Shahzada Khan, the son of Badshah Khan
• Faisal Qureshi as Breaking News, a monkey
• Salman Saqib as Rangeela, a chameleon
• Jawed Sheikh as Changu, Mangu's father
• Ismail Tara as Pehalwan Chacha, Changu's brother
• Shafaat Ali as Ronald Crump, a hippopotamus version of Donald Trump
• Irfan Khoosat as Jamboora, an chimpanzee who is the media house owner; and Raftaar, a tortoise
• Shabbir Jan as Sardar Chacha, a grizzly bear
• Sahiba Afzal as Mangu's love interest
• Ahsan Rahim as Mr. Propaganda, a siberian tiger
• Irfan Malik as Panoti, a zebra
• Ali Hassan as Raja Uncle

In August 2018, the first look of the animated film was released, directed by Aziz Jindani, developed and produced by Talisman Studios and Geo Films.[7] Jindani revealed that he had the idea of the film since 2003, and had started working on the film in 2013 during the a

working on his Commander Safeguard animated series.[8] The film stars the voices of Jan Rambo, Ismail Tara, Hina Dilpazeer, Ghulam Mohiuddin, Shabbir Jan, Jawed Sheikh and others.

In 2016, Aziz founded Talisman Studios, an animation studio based in Karachi and begin the work on the Donkey King, the film was animated on Autodesk Maya & rendered on Fox Renderfarm.

The teaser of the film was released on 20 August,[7][9] and trailer on 23 September.[5]

The release date announced for the film was 13 October 2018, though it released a day earlier.[10] It was premiered on the same day at Nueplex Cinemas, in DHA, Karachi.[11][12] As of 2020, Donkey King had been released in ten countries worldwide with local dubbings.[6] It became the first Pakistani film to release in South Korea on 28 August 2019,[13] and in Spain on 4 October 2019,[14] where it was dubbed into three languages – Spanish, Catalan and Basque – and released under the titles El Rey Burro, El Rei Ruc and Asto Erregea respectively at 50 screens across the country.[15] It released in Russia on 5 December with a Russian dub[16] and across 100 screens in Turkey on 20 December in Turkish dub.[17] It was scheduled to release in Colombia on 9 January 2020.[18] It also released in Peru on 13 February 2020.[19] In 2020, it also had a television premier in Pakistan, and reportedly gained the most-watched viewership record in the country for any television premier.[6]

Prior to its release, a legal petition was made that demanded a ban on the film due to its title song making fun of the Raja caste.[21] However, this was dismissed by the Islamabad High Court.[22] Some other political controversies related to resemblance of lead role with prime minister Imran Khan and videos related to the film also appeared, which Geo Films and Talisman Studios clarified legally.[23][24]

The film recorded the biggest opening in Pakistan for any animated film, collecting ₨36 lakh .[10] It also recorded the biggest single day for animated films by hitting the ₨1 crore mark locally on its second day.[25] It also beat the one week record of Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor at local box office within just a weekend, by collecting around ₨2.75 crore .[26] It made over ₨4 crore in its first week.[27] The film earned ₨3.78 crore on its second weekend, which is more than the gross of its first weekend.[28][29] It became the highest grossing Pakistani animated film within its second week, breaking the previous local box office record of 3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam having about ₨8.1 crore .[30] It made ₨9.1 crore in its two weeks.[31] It then also recorded second biggest third weekend for any Pakistani film, behind Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2, by collecting ₨3.85 crore , which is itself greater than its second weekend.[32]

It collected more than ₨5 crore in its third week,[33] with recording the bigger numbers on third Tuesday than previous ones.[34] It made up to ₨16.95 crore in its first four weeks.[35] It recorded the biggest fifth weekend for any film at Pakistani box office with collecting around ₨1.3 crore ,[36] and made up to ₨18.65 crore in five weeks.[37] It crossed ₨20 crore in its sixth weekend, again making the weekend biggest for any Pakistani film as well as for any release on local box office.[38] It again grossed high numbers in seventh[39] and eighth weeks, which made the film gross up to ₨22.25 crore .[40][41] It was listed as #1 blockbuster Pakistani film of 2018 by Mohammad Kamran Jawaid of Dawn.[2]

At local box office, it made ₨24.5 crore in 17 weeks,[42] and ₨24.75 crore in lifetime 25 weeks.[4]

Music video of "Donkey Raja" (Remix), directed by Ahsan Rahim with Zain Haleem as director of photography, was released on 9 October 2018, starring the voice cast themselves.[43] Shuja Haider was nominated for "Donkey Raja" in category Best Playback Singer in 18th Lux Style Awards.[44] As of July 2020, the soundtrack has received more than 100 million streams on YouTube, making it one of the most viewed Pakistani film Soundtrack.

• List of Pakistani animated films
• List of Pakistani films of 2018
• Cartoon Network (Pakistan)

• The Donkey King at IMDb
• The Donkey King on Facebook