MUMBAI: Toonz Animation India and South American studio Illusion Studios have inked a co-production deal for producing a 90 minute 3D animated feature film Gaturro based on the famous Argentine comic strip Gaturro.

Created by Christian Dzwonik (Nik) Gaturro chronicles the fun love story of two cats Gaturro the protagonist and Agatha.

The deal is estimated to be worth $6 million and the pre-production has already been completed. The production of the feature will commence at the Toonz Animation production facility in Trivandrum, India within couple of weeks. The film is expected to hit theatres world-wide by 2010.

"This is a new challenge for us, something we look forward to, Gaturro as a comic strip is an iconic character and it would demand greater care to give life to him in a different medium. But I am confident that we will be able to rise up to the expectations of our audience," said Toonz Animation India CEO P Jayakumar.

"We are absolutely proud to have Toonz Animation India on board. It is an essential contribution to our international positioning, as well as to our strategy of opening up new markets for our film industry. Just as with all of our productions, we dream of a film that brings a new artistic proposal to the market and we believe combining the talent of our artists and the great expertise of Toonz Animation will help Gaturro have a special differential ingredient in his animated version," said Illusion Studios CEO José Luis Massa.