Cricketer, captain, mentor, and even a brand ambassador, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has done it all. But now, the cricket world’s idol will be seen in a new avatar of a warrior in an upcoming graphic novel Atharva-The Origin. Chennai-based Virzu Studios in association with MIDAS Deals released the motion poster of its upcoming graphic novel.
The motion poster features Dhoni as a superhero and warrior who fights hundreds of fearless demons. The visuals are brilliant and realistic and the rugged look of Dhoni gives a visual treat to MSDians.
The graphic novel is authored by Ramesh Thamilmani, headed by MVM Vel Mohan, and produced by Vincent Adaikalaraj and Ashok Manor, and features over 150 lifelike illustrations which represent the immersive and gripping narrative. AnimationXpress got in touch with Thamilmani to know more about the interesting facts and making of the Atharva-The Origin.
Describing the graphic novel and how they worked tirelessly to create each scene, a passionate Thamilmani said, “Atharva is not just a graphic novel with 3D and 2D pictures, it is a full collection of realistic images where a lot of detailing and narration is made to make it more immersive. The novel is divided into 150 scenes, and it is more like watching a movie than reading. Atharva is a mythological story that is set at a time period when even continents were not found. MSD will be seen playing the lead character as a superhero and warrior. We were working on this for the last six years. We had to create every single frame right from costumes, looks, characters, creatures to make it more realistic and immersive.”
Thamilmani has been working on this project for many years as he always wanted to cast Dhoni as a lead character but he thought it was impossible to do that. “It was a dream for us to do this novel with MSD but we thought it won’t be possible to star him in our project. One day I got a chance to meet him through a friend and I approached him, and shared the concept story with him. First, he was not clear but after explaining the storyline and the entire plot he was really impressed and accepted to be a part of the novel.”
The author also shared how Dhoni supported and co-operated with the team entirely. “He gave full support to us, he came for the photoshoot where we took around 250-300 photos, captured his reactions, motions, and then created 3D models and the entire look of Atharva.”
He further added, “It took a lot of effort, the characters you have seen in the teaser are the real images from the book. We hired stunt people, directed the stunts, and created the environment. Creating a realistic pitch was the most challenging part for us. We were very conscious about maintaining continuity, proportion, and consistency throughout the novel.”
Talking about the research process and challenges faced while creating the film, the author shared, “The main process is to come up with a template as it is not a comic book. Dividing stories into scenes and creating images to represent the narration was the most difficult task for us. To design templates took a couple of months, and many times we had to re-do things from scratch. Since it is a fantasy and mythology-based story we had the liberty to explore things but at the same time, we wanted people to feel connected. So we created a story that people find similar and relatable to the real world.”
The pre-order for the novel will start this month and the official launch date will be announced soon. We can’t keep calm to see our captain cool in an all-new mythological superhero avatar.