Vimanika: India's new comic book collectibles

Watching India's great epics on television one is bound to feel at least a little sacrilegious laughing at Krishna and Arjun -- two heroes of the great Indian epic Mahabharata -- played by actors with bad wigs and too much lipstick. So captivating however were the stories told in B.R Chopra's record-breaking T.V. series of the 1980s that viewers across the country forgave the creaking sets and unconvincing prosthetics. 

In 2008, Karan Vir Arora, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur and enthusiast of all things epic, revamped these ancient stories and gave the heroes a 21st-century makeover in his groundbreaking comic book series, marketed under the internationally recognized brand name Vimanika. 

Arora envisions taking the epic stories, which continue to inhabit the recesses of our collective imagination, to the silver screen and the domains of animation, gaming, theme parks and beyond. 

For Karan the process began with a simple bedtime story…

"My brother used to read stories to my sister and me every night when we were about 10 years old. He would read stories from Indian mythology and Lord of the Rings. I remember being fascinated by Tolkien's art of narration. So I sort of grew up with these epics and there are so many in our own history, so many stories, it is really unlimited. What I wanted to do originally was make a movie but I didn't have the money or the experience so I thought why not try comics. They're a great format." 

Vimanika Comics has already launched "The Legend of Karna", "Dashaavatar" and "Moksha" -- the adventures of Lord Hanuman 1,000 years after the Ramayana. In re-telling these stories Vimanika, run by a small and talented team, prioritizes aesthetic quality and authenticity.

"I write the raw story and the concept and then I give it to my comic strip writer who formats it in a sequential narrative with dialogue, frames and so on," explains Arora. "We also have sketchers, colorists, editors and scholars who ensure that our stories are authentic but also beautifully captured. Even though 'Moksha' is fictionalized, the universe of the character Hanuman is very authentic. We are also working on our next title 'Kalki: the tenth avatar of Vishnu'."

In creating new works, Arora insists the art is as important as the story.

"Amar Chitra Katha always had their story right, their research right, but what we have done is combined the authentic story with beautiful art. I used to find the Gita very boring as a youngster. The youth in India can feel suffocated by Hindu interpretations of our history and mythology. We don’t want to force it down their throats, which is why I have made it entertaining and beautiful but without forgetting the moral and the wisdom," says Arora.

Today, Vimanika Comics has several distributors in India including IBH and A.H. Wheeler. Vimanika was also the first Indian Comic exhibitor in the Philadelphia Comic Convention. As Vimanika ties up with Haven distributors, the second largest in the United States, their comics will be available in up to 1,800 stores across the country. 

"We are also interested in developing games and movies and are in talks with producers to do an animated series of "Legend of Karna". Karna is dear to me, not because we share the same name, but because he is untouched territory. He is not the victor in the Mahabharata and people tend to remember the victorious. In the next two to three years we hope to have these stories available in other mediums and games as well. In terms of a film if I could choose any director it would be Peter Jackson or Mani Ratnam!" 

As Karan Vir Arora looks ahead he also remembers the people that inspired him and those than continue to do so like J.K. Rowling, who keeps him entertained with the world she has crafted in the Harry Potter series. Ashok Banker, a contemporary Indian writer who has reinterpreted the Ramayana, says the stories are begging to be turned to celluloid.

"Ashok Banker has been my inspiration. In fact he wrote the forward to "Legend of Karna". I would call him India's Tolkien. Sir Richard Branson of Virgin comics has also been an inspiration and my brother who has a brilliant imagination. William Buch, Vyasa and Valmiki the great storytellers have also been important influences, they keep me going."

You can order Vimanika comics online, here.