Indrajith in comics

Though coming up with a comic book based on the characters of a film is a known phenomenon in Hollywood — and in some cases in Bollywood — it is unprecedented in Tamil. But not anymore! Gautham Karthik’s upcoming action adventure film Indrajith has got its own comic book — a promotional gig by its makers. Illustrated by VA Studios, a video production firm based in Chennai, the comic book was recently released in the city.

We got in touch with Vijay Ashokan, the CEO and Creative Director of the studio, for a chat about the new attempt. “A similar comic was made as a promotional feature merchandise for  the Hindi film Ra One, and even Baahubali had a similar one. But such an attempt has been made in Tamil for the first time,” he states.

The comic has the same characters as the film, but the storyline is different from the film, says Vijay. “The character features and outline are pretty much the same, but it has nothing to do with the film’s story. It has a different storyline and will have a small connection with the feature.”

Adding, he says, “We’ve not compromised in terms of quality. The standard of the comic is on par with that of Marvel and DC’s quality.” It is a 36-page comic and is fully illustrated by the team with the story and dialogues of the director Kalaprabhu.

Vijay says, “The book has already got good feedback from the people, who have laid the hands on it. The book starts in Kumbakonam and it has a dance sequence, fight sequence, and a chase block and everything that is adventurous and visually pleasing. It finally ends with a twist.”

VA Studios is around for a long time serving MNC and international companies, and aims to explore more in comic book space as film promotional merchandise.

“To make a comic book based on films, there are certain requirements — the theme should have a lot to do with visual and adventurous content. It won’t be that interesting to make comics on a romantic story. Films like 2.0 are perfect for something like this,” Vijay concludes.