The Donkey King

Jan Mangu(Afzal Khan), while delivering his serives, accidentally enters in an arena where Jungle Mela was held. The animals were already against the VIP march which caused the sacrifice of 500 goats for the Mela. However, Badshah Khan(Ghulam Mohiuddin) had an announcement to make that he has an idea of leaving the throne to his son Shahzada Khan(Adeel Hashmi), who is already defamed in the animals due to his dufferness and attraction to social media.

Miss Fitna(Hina Dilpazeer) gives an idea about choosing the new king by means of democracy, so Badshah Khan gives her charge to handle election campaign and find the new respectable king, however they plan some hypocricy in Shahzada Khan's favour too.

After many failed auditions for king, Miss Fitna finally plans to prepare Jan Mangu for the election campaign and becoming the king, also tries to satisfy him. Jamboora uses media hand to create the fame for Mangu and to defame Shahzada, while Rangeela does the same in public by talk-and-leaks with Sardar Chacha who is already well-trusted in Azadnagar. Pehalwan Chacha and Mr. Propaganda also had a fight in Breaking News's show.

Meanwhile, Miss Fitna had some else plans, she satisfies Badshah Khan on public's interest in choosing Mangu as new king. She takes them out of the castle, deep through a secret passage where they get caught, with her plan as now the lions will be working for circus and the donkey will be ruling with no wist.

Mangu, now new king, also couldn't satisfy the public demands due to misguidances by Miss Fitna in arranging wrong duties for unworthy animals, so that the other animals in the town also starts to get kidnapped and no one to hear or help them properly. Mangu's father Changu appears to him and orders him to work wisely and not to stay just a donkey with mind. He understands his mistake and himself goes out in search for the lost animals. First the town doesn't agree to him, but after seeing the video of lost animals they all come out to help Mangu in rescuing the kidnapped animals.

They figure out Miss Fitna as guilty, and now Mangu, as a new and respected king, replaces the services of other animals wisely.

• Afzal Khan as Jan Mangu, a laundry-donkey and the New King of Azad Nagar
• Hina Dilpazeer as Miss Fitna, a fox who is personal secretary to the king
• Ghulam Mohiuddin as Badshah Khan, a lion who is king of Azadnagar
• Adeel Hashmi as Shahzada Khan, son of the Badshah Khan
• Faisal Qureshi as Breaking News, a monkey
• Salman Saquib as Rangeela, a chameleon
• Javed Shaikh as Changu, Mangu's father
• Ismail Tara as Pehalwan Chacha
• Shafaat Ali as Ronald Crump, a hippopotamus
• Irfan Khoosat as Jamboora, an ape who is the media house owner; and Raftaar, a tortoise
• Shabbir Jan as Sardar Chacha, a bear
• Sahiba Afzal as Mangu's love interest
• Ahsan Rahim as Mr. Propaganda, a 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.[6] Jindani revealed that he had the idea of the film since 2003, and had started working on the film in 2013 during working on his Commander Safeguard animated series.[7] The film stars the voices of Jan Rambo, Ismail Tara, Hina Dilpazeer, Ghulam Mohiuddin, Shabbir Jan, Jawed Sheikh and others.

The teaser of the film was released on 20 August,[6][8] and trailer on 23 September.[5]

The release date announced for the film was 13 October 2018, though it released a day earlier.[9] It was premiered on the same day at Nueplex Cinemas, in DHA, Karachi.[10][11] It also became the first Pakistani film to release in South Korea on 28 August 2019,[12] and in Spain on 4 October 2019,[13] 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.[14] It released in Russia on 5 December with a Russian dub[15] and across 100 screens in Turkey on 20 December in Turkish dub.[16] It was scheduled to release in Colombia on 9 January 2020.[17] It also released in Peru on 13 February 2020.[18]

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.[19] However, this was dismissed by the Islamabad High Court.[20] 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.[21][22]

The film recorded the biggest opening in Pakistan for any animated film, collecting ₨36 lakh.[9] It also recorded the biggest single day for animated films by hitting the ₨1 crore mark locally on its second day.[23] 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.[24] It made over ₨4 crore in its first week.[25] The film earned ₨3.78 crore on its second weekend, which is more than the gross of its first weekend.[26][27] 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.[28] It made ₨9.1 crore in its two weeks.[29] 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.[30]

It collected more than ₨5 crore in its third week,[31] with recording the bigger numbers on third Tuesday than previous ones.[32] It made up to ₨16.95 crore in its first four weeks.[33] It recorded the biggest fifth weekend for any film at Pakistani box office with collecting around ₨1.3 crore,[34] and made up to ₨18.65 crore in five weeks.[35] 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.[36] It again grossed high numbers in seventh[37] and eighth weeks, which made the film gross up to ₨22.25 crore.[38][39] 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,[40] 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.[41] Shuja Haider was nominated for "Donkey Raja" in category Best Playback Singer in 18th Lux Style Awards.[42]

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

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