The last time around, she flew around the country atop a tiger, fighting for victims of sexual abuse. This time, Priya takes up the cause of victims of acid attacks. As she battles the challenges faced by women whose faces and lives have been disfigured by jilted lovers and relatives, Priya’s Mirror , the second in a five-part comic series, focusses on one of the biggest gender violence issues faced in India.
Priya’s Shakti , released in 2014, was about a gang rape survivor who goes on to become a superhero fighting patriarchy. Victim blaming is the most common fallout of gender violence, and it was to change this narrative that the Priya series was created by Ram Devineni, along with artist Dan Goldman and filmmaker Paromita Vohra. “The book is especially designed for young teenagers, to encourage them to have discussions about gender issues,” says Ram.
While the first one was rather well received, the second one came about when Ram met acid attack survivor Laxmi in Delhi in December 2015. “When I met Laxmi and her group, Stop Acid Attacks, I realised that many of the problems and stigma they face are very similar to those faced by victims of rape.”
What also sets these books apart is the fact that they use Augmented Reality (AR) to enhance the reading experience. “AR has been a big part of our books, simply because it is the perfect technological medium for comic books. It converts them into pop-up books and makes the experience so much more interactive. When we first introduced AR with Priya’s Shakti , people were blown away; this was way before Pokemon Go became the rage. Also, this way, our books reach a much wider audience and are not limited to just women, even though we deal with issues they face,” explains Ram. The makers of the comic have tied up with Blippar, an app that lets you blip the markers in the book to bring them alive.
Incidentally, the book is co-created by some acid attack survivors. The characters in the book are based on Laxmi and Sonia, and the duo was involved with the reviewing process. Monica Singh, another acid attack survivor, helped with the development of the characters. “When we conducted our interviews with the survivors, we realised that despite the disfigurement, there was a whole person inside them. They are a combination of experiences before and after the attack. They see themselves rather differently from the way we see them, and it’s time we changed our perceptions as well. In this regard, art plays a powerful role in imagining what could be. There’s also a small love story embedded in the plot,” says Ram.
While the books have an element of mythology (Priya prays to goddess Parvati, and that’s how she gets her shakti), Paromita says that it is more about the essential nature of human relationships. “It is based on strong human truths. It is not just magic, but more about why we are who we are. This cuts across cultures and looks at archetypal truths across society,” she says.
Dan, who worked on the artwork in the books, says the artwork was created with a lot of sensitivity. “There’s a respectful dignity involved here. That’s the lovely thing about comics; they appear to be entertainment, but with a social or moral lesson. So, I was walking a thin line while making the comic fun,” he explains.
Priya’s Mirror has a major augmented reality exhibition at the New York Film Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center that will go on till October 16. The book will be launched in India at the Mumbai Comic Con that is scheduled to be held on October 22 and 23, and will also be a part of an art and augmented reality exhibition in Bogota, Colombia, in November this year. According to Ram, nearly 30,000 free books will be given out at the comic con in India.
Dan, who has in the past interacted with comic book fans in India when Priya’s Shakti was launched, says he had quite a few people come up to him and break down upon reading the book. “They were just so overwhelmed that someone was talking about these issues,” he says.
The trio is already working on the third book, which Ram says, will be about sex trafficking. “It will be called Priya and the Lost Girls, and is currently in the research stage,” he says.
