Author: Rachel Abramowitz
Publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Date: January 21, 2006
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/21/DDGC7GQIG01.DTL
Hollywood's search for new mythologies now
extends to the Indian subcontinent.
One of the world's greatest stories, India's
"Ramayana," is being retold as a postapocalyptic comic book, in
Ramayana Reborn, with an animated television spin-off for kids titled "The
Seven Sounds."
This is the brainchild of the newly launched
Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment partnership between British
billionaire Richard Branson, best-selling New Age author Deepak Chopra, film
director Shekhar Kapur ("Bandit Queen" and "Elizabeth")
and India's leading licenser of comic books, Gotham Entertainment Group, which
has brought "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" to Delhi and Bombay,
as well as launched an Indian version of "Spider-Man."
"The Ramayan is the Eastern equivalent
of the 'Odyssey.' It is our 'Lord of the Rings,' " says Gotham Chopra,
Deepak's 30-year-old son, a former Channel One TV personality, author and
producer, and the venture's chief creative officer.
The new companies, in New York and Bangalore,
India, are using largely Asian-influenced comics as the platform to build
a global media company.
"We felt that interest in this Asian-edged
content, this is the growing wave," says Chopra. "Richard, as a
big Western billionaire, recognized that the future of entertainment is in
the East, not necessarily in Hollywood."
Comic books are a thriving arena in America,
and have been the springboard for many Hollywood blockbusters.
"The growth of the comic market in America
has been spectacular," notes Adrian Sington, executive chairman of Virgin
Books, who is supervising the multimillion-dollar investment for Virgin. "It's
been led by comics made in Asia. Despite the fact that India has a mature
entertainment business, with movies and sports, it's had no comic business.
They're leveraging the talent of Indian creators and moving them like manga
into the West. We're looking to help them do that."
According to news reports, comic books saw
their sales jump 9 percent in the United States last year. Still, Marvel,
one of the industry's giants, made twice as much money licensing superheroes
to the movies as on the sale of comic books. The comics business here is a
fraction of what it is in some countries. According to Forbes, manga -- a
style of Japanese comics -- is a $5.6 billion industry.
Virgin Comics is already in development on
three lines of comics: Maverick, based on the work of songwriters; Director's
Cut, working with film directors (John Woo has signed on); and Shakti, which
will focus on Indian content.
Shakti means "power" in Hindi, and
titles in the line include "Devi," which means "goddess."
Chopra describes the character as "Asia's first superwoman."
"She wears the different faces of the
goddess," he said. "On one hand she plays the typical submissive
Asian housewife, on the other hand she's Angelina Jolie." Another story
line concerns a 19th century English soldier who becomes a disciple of a sadhu,
or Indian wise man, who trains him to become a spiritual warrior.
Sharad Devarajan, the new venture's chief
executive, says the plan is to publish comics in the United States, Japan
and, of course, in India, not a traditional comic powerhouse but where there
will be an estimated 550 million teenagers by the year 2015.
Chopra is very much involved, says his son.
"A lot of people, like my father and
Shakur, they're tired of India being relegated to being this backroom, this
place for outsourcing. They both felt that India has this incredible pool
of talent, and (wanted to), if they could, be part of the creative renaissance."
He added: "My father is writing a novel
on the life of Buddha. We're doing the companion graphic novel."
