Superheroes and Acid Attacks: Ram Devineni Talks About His Comic Book Tackling Gender Violence
How do you tackle topics that are not only sensitive, but often gruesome, gory, and incredibly private? Violence and sexual assault against women drawn into a comic book and supplemented with augmented reality might seem like an unusual weave, but not only does it successfully transmit the intended weight of its message, it has the added bonus of being wonderfully entertaining throughout. Ram Devineni, is a creative from all angles: he has worked on documentaries Karma Killings and The Russian Woodpecker, a literary magazine, and in 2014 co-created Priya's Shakti and Priya's Mirror, comic books that discuss sexual assault in India. When confronted with the question 'Is there something you can't do?' Devineni simply shrugs his shoulders.
Priya’s Shakti, the first part of the protagonist Priya's story, a female superhero and a rape survivor, sees her fighting for justice for her own case and to rebuild strength. The second part, Priya’s Mirror, details Priya's continuing journey as she heads out to use her powers to help acid attack victims. As for the inspiration behind his stories, Devineni says that he was taken aback by the ignorance and blame society puts on the rape victims, especially following the horrific death of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh in 2012 who died after being gang-raped on a private bus in Delhi. "I got involved in the protests together with other Indians and in one of them I approached a police officer, just asking him what he thought about what was happening and he said, ‘no good girl travels home alone at night.’ It got me thinking that gender violence is a cultural problem and not a legal one."
Ram Devineni's Priya's Mirror is currently on display until Dec 10 at the Crossroads Centre as a part of the third Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAW) art exhibition. Even despite its heavy content, a visit to the exhibition may induce 'a four-year-old going to an amusement park' level of excitement because the exhibition takes the high-tech and immersive step of layering the book's pages with augmented reality. Simply download an app upon your arrival and let it guide you through the story. The drawings not only come alive, but you'll also be able to see talks with real acid survivors who were later transformed and used as inspiration for characters in the story.
Meeting Devineni to discuss making comic books, his sense of humor in the face of somber works was immediately apparent. Asking him to highlight some of his favorite events or places he has visited while presenting Priya's Shakti and Priya's Mirror, Devineni states, "Beijing, obviously" before breaking into laughter.
TBJ: What do you think choosing a format of a comic book instead of something else has brought to the table?
Ram Devineni: Initially I was thinking of a documentary, but I was not a journalist and I need to tell a story through characters, so the topic was way too hot to discuss in that format. When I realized that my target audience was teenage boys, documentary automatically got dismissed as a genre – they would never watch that. I started digging through old Indian superhero movies, tightly knit with Hinduism and its Gods. I was initially working on a story that was made of cut-outs from those movies. They were quite impressive with their bright technicolor and '70s special effects. Then I went to my first tech meetup in New York City. The illustrator of the book, Dan Goldman was also there. I was leaving, he was coming in and we just bumped into each other.
Cue stacks of paper flying into the air and you both scrabbling to pick them up?
More like iPads flying [laughs]. I showed him the prototype of the film and he instantly said 'This should be a comic book.' I've never done comics myself, I only read them when growing up. Priya's Shakti and Priya's Mirror would not have been possible without Dan.
The drawing style strongly resembles Indian tradition; the colors, shapes etc. Did foreigners receive it quite easily or did they find it alienating?
There is definitely some knowledge in the comics that is a given for Indians but will be missed by foreigners. You can still understand the story fully but might miss some cultural hints and subtext. It is made specifically for Indian audiences. The reasoning behind why you would ask certain Gods for certain favors is a natural knowledge for Indians but might be missed by Westerners.
After the release, when it went viral, I think it happened because there was a lot of coverage in India after the gang rape and all the news that was coming out of the country was bad. And then suddenly there appears a female superhero flying on a tiger and fighting assaulters. It had a note of exoticism and this insane imagery, with the message that was relevant worldwide. It wasn't anything like the usual superheroes and it just stuck.
Looking back at these years after the release of the book, have you received any unexpected reactions?
I am usually skeptical about all art, and very pragmatic. I would have never expected it to take off as it did. We spent about a year researching the topic and then another year developing it with fact-checking and proofreading from NGOs, rape survivors, and psychologists. I remember showing the comic book when it was already with augmented reality feature to the editor of one magazine and she just said 'This is going to go massively viral. Are you ready for that?' Even she's been completely blown away. Two weeks prior to the launch I was still slightly skeptical. Then there was an article on BBC India about Priya's Shakti and it ended up being on the front page for a week or so. Afterwards, it was just a snowballing; BBC, Al Jazeera, and other outlets. I was flying back to India at that time and from the first phone call interview with BBC at 4 in the morning to the time I got on the plane I had at least 30 interviews and when I got to India it was at least 150 interviews waiting.
Priya's Mirror is on display at Crossroads Centre, 9.30am to 5.30pm, until Dec 10.
More by this author here.
Images courtesy of Ram Devineni
