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

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 USbased founder of the production company Rattapallax that was the tipping point to create Priyarsquos Mask a comic book and animated short film that releases tomorrow starring Indiarsquos first female comic book superhero on a mission to fight COVID19Priya was brought to life in 2014 in the graphic novel Priyarsquos 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 antimaskers tooMeenarsquos 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 charactersThakur 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 donrsquot 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 patriarchyAn 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 Priyarsquos 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 tryWhat 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 availableLog on to priyashakticomKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news