Priya Shakti, India's first female comic Superhero, takes on COVID

The superhero has a flying tiger named Sahas, who accompanies her on her explorations, and they are joined by a little girl named Meena

There has been plenty of discussion on the economic and medical consequences of the virus, but very little on the emotional toll it has on people," filmmaker Ram Devineni asserts. For the US-based founder of the production company Rattapallax, that was the tipping point to create Priya's Mask - a comic book and animated short film that releases tomorrow starring India's first female comic book superhero on a mission to fight COVID-19.

Priya was brought to life in 2014 in the graphic novel Priya's Shakti, which was inspired by the Delhi gang rape and murder case of 2012. Since then, the series also delved into acid attack survivors and sex trafficking. In its latest instalment set in the pandemic, Priya, accompanied by her flying tiger Sahas, takes a little girl named Meena on a journey exploring various facets of the lockdown: the movement of migrant workers, the pressure on frontline workers and the anti-maskers, too.

Meena's character came through because the team wanted to address the impact of isolation on kids. "Additionally, we wanted a creative way for parents to talk about the pandemic and loneliness with their children," Devineni shares. Funding for the project came via a grant from the North India Office (NIO) of the US Embassy New Delhi, in coordination with the Regional English Language Office (RELO). It is produced by Tanvi Gandhi, Indrani Ray, and Monika Samtani, written by Shubhra Prakash, with illustrations and animation by Syd Fini, Hamid Bahrami and Neda Kazemifar. The animation film has actors Vidya Balan, Mrunal Thakur, Rosanna Arquette, and Sairah Kabir, voicing the characters.

Thakur lent her voice to a character (Priya) for the first time. And she maintains that preparation for it came from a place of passion. "As a woman growing up in a largely patriarchal society, Priya has a great relatable value at a personal level for me," she says, adding, "We don't have enough women superheroes and none who are South Asian or Indian. Being an Indian woman, I want the next generation of girls to learn early and know that they have the courage and potential in them to break the shackles of patriarchy."

An interesting aspect of the storyline is that readers get to see Priya collaborate with Burka Avenger, a female superhero from Pakistan. This came to fruition due to the fact that "the virus does not respect borders," says Devineni. Although the comic book has always included Augmented Reality (AR), he states that animation was an entirely new experience. "Although young people read comics, the number is small in comparison to the amount of people who watch animated films. So, it was important for us to take Priya's journey to another level and a larger audience," he says. And since AR is still in a nascent stage in India, but gaining traction because of social media, the team has also introduced an AR effect on Instagram that users can try.

What can we expect from Priya in the future? Devineni reminds us that the pandemic is far from over. But he leaves us with a hint - "we still need to convince people to take the vaccine when it becomes available."

Log on to: priyashakti.com

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