MUMBAI: Music television channel 9XM seems to be emerging unscathed from the recent turn of events at parent company INX Media.

The channel, which set a trend of sorts by introducing animated characters in place of live veejays in between songs when it launched October 2007, is planning to release a full length animated feature film based on its popular characters Chhote and Bade before the year is out.

In a couple of months, the channel also plans to add another character to its bunch of odd ball VJs - Badshah Ali Khan ( a cross between Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan) will make his appearance along with Chhote Bade, Bheegi Billi and The Beetles.

The feature film, on the other hand, will be designed on the lines of popular American animated television sereis Beavis and Butt-head. While Chhote Bade are a pair of friends who take a crack at practically anything, Texans Beavis and Butt-head while away their time in sarcastic conversation, fantasizing about sex and masculinity, although they have no real-world experience with either thing. In 1996, the series was spun off into an animated feature film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America.

Last week, 9XM announced the launch of its mobile site, which will enable the channel's loyalists to catch up better with its characters as well as download ringtones and CRBTs. According to business head Vikas Varma, the channel, which he claims is still ahead of MTV in the TRP stakes, will this year concentrate on monetising the characters that it has spawned in the last year and half. Merchandising, on ground activities as well as subtle content integration will be the route the channel will take to cash in on the popularity of its characters, he says. Currently, the channel has a mix of conventional advertising (ten minutes per hour), the interactive ticker tape on screen and content integration, like the recent Minute Maid - Bheegi Billi campaign.