TMCnet News
Time for mythological characters to be reborn(Ecomonic Times, The (India) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 14--HYDERABAD, India -- Indian mythology is set for a rebirth, with Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation launching a new comic book titled Ramayana Reborn. The book would be based on Indian mythology but set in a futuristic scenario, and is expected to be out in July 2006 in India, the U.S. and the U.K. The company is also looking to take the comic book forward with an animation series and also develop merchandise around the characters. Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation are two companies that have resulted from a three-way partnership between Virgin Books, Gotham Entertainment group, author Deepak Chopra and film-maker Shekhar Kapoor. The partnership was announ- ced last week and will focus on creating original comic books and character properties for a global audience. Talking to ET on the sidelines of the Nasscom Animation 2006 conference, Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devarajan said, "India has the largest content pool and many Western movies were developed around eastern philosophies. The company would take the Asian stories forward with characters based on Indian mythology." Another in the series is a character developed by director Shekhar Kapoor, titled Devi, which has a contemporary storyline. The content for such projects might be from the epics, and we will retain the philosophy and idea behind it, said Devarajan. The company will start off with comics and license it into movies, animation, toys, video games and consumer products. Virgin Animation currently has about 60 artistes, and the company plans to ramp up the number to 200 in the next one-and-a-half to two years. "We will scale up our operations here and plan to focus on character entertainment. We intend to create the next wave of content producers in India," said Devarajan. The company is also working on about eight other similar projects, said Virgin Comics president (India) Suresh Seetharaman. The company expects to export the culture of India through these projects, and is betting big on the acceptance of Asian content in the West. "Cartoons like Pokemon from Japan have worked so well in the global markets. We intend to replicate the same with India-inspired characters," says Devarajan. |