Chitrakatha: Indian Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels

Saumin Patel

2010-06-12T01:31:00.000+05:30

SAUMIN PATEL

SAUMIN PATEL is a comic book artist / illustrator from Mumbai-India.

He graduated from Sir J.J Institute Of Applied Arts with First Class in B.F.A Applied arts

He joined Clubgreetings.com as animator/ illustrator. In two years time the company expanded its work base into animation for broadcast. During this period he worked on various animation projects for MTV India and NIKELODEAN. He also art directed and animated his short film ‘PAYBACK’ which was nominated in the best short film category at the first FICCI in the year 2004.

Soon after that he went independent working on various animation and illustration projects for many advertising agencies and television channels. His clients include JWT, LOWE, O&M, LEO BURNETT, SAATCHI & SAATCHI, PUBLICIS INDIA, STAR NEWS, VH-1. The work was good but he was looking for some challenge.

VIRGIN COMICS LLC. provided a tempting opportunity of creating comics in India.

He joined just out of love for the medium of comics and to do his bit of labor to make the medium more popular in India. He worked on visual development of various animation projects designing concepts, characters and environments. He co-created MUMBAI MACGUFFIN with writer saurav mohapatra for Virgin Comics.

Currently he is independently working on various visual development projects for feature and ad films. Developing stories in graphic novel format with various writers and film directors. His quest now is to tell stories through the medium of comic books and films.

Synopsis

2009-10-25T23:51:00.000+05:30

Chitrakatha: Indian Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels

From imported syndicated strips to the advent of original home grown comic book heroes, the journey of Indian comics is as vibrant and entertaining as the colorful imagery created inside the pages of comic books.

Chitrakatha: Indian Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels explores the largely untouched subject of Indian Comics as a serious art form. It covers the history, evolution, cultural - social significance as well as the future of Indian comics, through a series of conversational interviews with the Comic Book Creators. Chitrakatha tells the fascinating story of Indian Comics’ unsung heroes: The creators. The struggle, the pain and the vision that went behind some of the most cherished Indian comic book characters.

Researched for over 5 years and shot across India, Chitrakatha is written, directed and produced by self-confessed life long comic book buff, addict and artist Alok Sharma.

Chitrakatha features three generations of Comic Book Artists discussing the medium, the passion and the idea that went behind these comic books which cut across the lingual boundaries and are fondly remembered by millions of fans.

It also throws light on how Comics in India have very efficiently commented on contemporary social issues as well as proved to be a very effective educational tool.

For instance, Comics like the Bahadur series in the 70s efficiently commented on contemporary dacoit issue faced by Central India, while vigilante Doga addresses day to day problems faced by the common man today. Comics like Amar Chitra Katha have distinguished themselves as a very effective and entertaining educational tool by retelling the Indian literary classics and history in sequential art form.

This is a story of people who passionately created a world inhibited with dozens of imaginary friends to make generations of Indian kids dream.

Director's Note

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Thanks to my father’s job my childhood was spent shuttling from one small town to another in Central India. This meant lack of friends. To overcome boredom I read voraciously, devouring any and every book available around me. But the ones I fell in love with were comics. The colourful books offered stories of many kinds mythological, comedy, action, superheroes…even horror. Those were the days when mediums of entertainment were limited, comics offered a wonderful swashbuckling escape from our otherwise dull and boring reality.

I started my professional life as a comic book artist with Gotham Studios, where I was suddenly exposed to some of the best comic art by the masters like Eisner, Alan Moore, Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, Tezuka, Moebius etc.These creators, celebrities in their own right with massive fan following, were a huge influence on pop culture. I slowly began to understand comics in a new light. I revisited the stuff I’d read as a kid. And realized that we have something incredible unique and special in our own comics culture. This is when the idea of documenting the history and evolution of Indian comic book art germinated in my mind.

It took 5 years of intensive research, out of which last two years were spent in tracing the artists, publishers, traveling, meeting and convincing them for the documentary. The very first generation of Indian comic book creators were already in their mid 70s or 80s they had to be found and interviewed in detail so that we can know their stories, struggles and vision behind the creations which lived in hearts of millions of people.

CHITRAKATHA is an ode to the unsung heroes of Indian Comic Books – The Creators! It records the advent, history and evolution and revival of comic book medium in India.

-Alok Sharma

About Us

2009-10-25T18:44:00.004+05:30

TEAM CHITRAKATHA

ALOK SHARMA (Writer, Director, Producer)
NEESHANK MATHURE (Cinematographer)
SAUMIN PATEL (Graphics/Co-Producer)

Writer, Director, Producer: Alok Sharma

2009-10-25T18:40:00.001+05:30

Alok has worked across media with experience in radio, television, animation and of course, comics.

Passionate to a fault about comics, he’s now working on his dream project, the documentary ‘Chitrakatha: Indian Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels’ – which attempts to cover the history and evolution of sequential art in

India

In the past Alok has worked with Gotham Comics as a comic book artist. Later, he was associated as a promo producer with radio stations like Radio City 91.1FM and Radio One 94.3. He’s also been associated with TV wing of The Walt Disney Co. (India) where he worked as a consultant producer and with NDTV Imagine Showbiz as a consultant supervising writer.

Apart from these jobs, he’s worked with BIG Animation as an Asst. Director (Pre-production) where he got the opportunity to develop and script animated films and TV series. He essayed the role of Hindi dialogue writer for the studio’s acclaimed 3D animation series ‘Little Krishna’ which debuted on Nick last summer.

After working in various industries, Alok is now looking forward to taking his ideas and concepts a little further into mainstream motion pictures, documentaries and animation. Presently he’s writing and developing scripts for feature films, documentaries and graphic novels.

He enjoys works on original concepts and hopes to direct a film someday too.

Director's Personal Note

Featured Artists

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The Comic Book Artists, Writers and Publishers featured in Chitrakatha:

Mr.Aabid Surti (Bahadur, Dhabbu Ji, Shuja, Inspector Aazad).

Mr.Anant Pai (Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle)

Mr.Anupam Sinha (Kapil, Space Star, Super Commando Dhruv, Nagraj etc.)

Mr.Dilip Kadam (Amar Chitra Katha, Manoj Comics, Raj Comics etc.)

Late Shri Govind Brahmania (Bahadur, Shuja, Cover artist for Indrajal Comics)

Mr.Gulshan Rai (Publisher, Diamond Comics)

Mr.Hussain Zamin (Nanha Jasoos Babloo, Kalamdas etc.)

Mr.Harish M. Sudan (Madhu Muskan, Daddy Ji)

Mr.Jagdish Bharti (Madhu Muskan, Popat Chaupat etc.)

Mr.Jeevan J. Kang (Spiderman India, Sadhu etc. Virgin/Liquid Comics)

Mr.Milind Mulick (Son of Late Shri Pratap Mulick)

Mr.Mukesh Singh (Devi, Game Keeper, Shadow Hunter etc. Virgin Comics/Liquid Comics)

Mr.Prabhakar Waeerkar (Sunny The Super Sleuth)

Mr.Pradeep Sathe (Aditya, Dara, Angara, Gumraj etc.)

Mr. Pran (Chacha Chaudhari, Billoo, Pinky etc.)

Mr.Pritish Nandy (Publisher, Indrajal Comics)

Mr.Sanjay Gupta (Raj Comics)

Mr.Sanjiv Waeerkar (Son of Late Shri Ram Waeerkar)

Mr.Sukhwant Kalsi (Junior James Bond, Chandru, Moorkhistan etc.)

Mr.Suresh Seetharaman (Publisher, Virgin Comics/Liquid Comics)

Mr.Tarun Kumar Wahi (Raj Comics)

Mr.Vivek Mohan (Raj Comics) and many more.

(Pictures and Mini Bios Coming Soon)

Let us know if you want to see your other favorite artists in Chitrakatha Documentary Project. Post your suggestions/requests in the comments section.

-Team Chitrakatha

Contact Us

2009-10-24T16:21:00.001+05:30

Alok Sharma ,
(Writer, Director, Producer)
Chitrakatha: Indian Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels

Cell No. +91 93254 38042
email: toonfactory@gmail.com