The Indian film industry’s pursuit of birthing its own version of a classic superhero may still prolong, but comic publishing house Orange Radius has been riding a wave of its own ever since Parshu was brought to existence.
The character is inspired by Lord Parshuram, an avatar of Vishnu, who imbues great guts and glory. However, it’s the sacred axe – Parshu – that fired the imagination of Raveesh Mohan, the founder of Orange Radius and the brain behind India’s popular superhero-warrior.
Originally released in September 2013 titled Parshu: Origins, the maiden edition whipped up a storm for its rumoured resemblance to DC comics’ Nightwing. Yet, the speculations weren’t big enough to prevent the series from striking a chord with its readers.
Soon, five more editions followed, each pushing the thrill up by a notch. And now, the makers have their plates full with the next version of the same. Suffice to say, Parshu really is some stuff!
For the record, the upcoming comic isn’t just another comic. It’s a motion comic! Yes, Orange Radius is tapping into the segment as the concept continues to gather steam in the country. Mohan was ambitious in his words as he says, “As a studio, we work on several animation projects with several big names of India and are looking to expand beyond our borders. Motion comics are something we’ve worked on for a couple of clients and are looking to expand in this format for our in-house productions.”
Whilst it’s a no-brainer that the comic industry in India has witnessed a precipitous fall from grace over the decades, the sales of the hard copies too have gone south. With players increasingly switching over to digitisation and motion comics, the print equivalents are fast drying up. And so are the financial returns.
Regarding motion comics Mohan says, “We wanted to do something different because print comics wasn’t a financially viable option. We initially had plans of releasing a 200 pager GN but instead decided to work on a motion comic.”
“The motion comic has been in production for a few months and we have been pitching the format across production houses as well” he further adds.Motion comics are said to lift the characters up from the pages and bring them to life. So the fans can expect a whole new experience of their favourite desi comic hero with the release of its latest series. And the story? “The story will be a re-imagining of his origins, will capture the legend of Lord Parshuram and interleave storytelling between current day and Lord Parshuram’s era” Mohan reveals.
Written alongside Priyank Loonker, he also talks about the team who helped put it all together. “Sunil and Sameer are the animators while Ravi from our team is the artist. Tarun Sahu has worked on the project initially.”
The Parshu web series is targeting an audience above 15 years of age and aiming for a February-March 2018 release.