BENGALURU: Some people are so dedicated to their craft that they do not realise how time flies while they do what they love. Savio Mascarenhas, group art director at Amar Chitra Katha has been with the company for over two decades and yet he does not feel a day older there. He has been at the forefront of many steps to make Indian stories more relevant in the modern age. CE interacts with Savio who was in the city a few days ago.
One of his main concerns presently is to bring out discreet stories and folktales from various regions around the country into the pages of his comic books. And for this he is seeking help from readers and story enthusiasts.“Go down to South India or states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan and there are a lots of very interesting stories. Northeast India is an area which we know is very rich in culture and oral history. What we want to do is put them in comic book form for everyone to enjoy and learn,” says Savio.
The project of making comics out of folktales will be in phases. “I want to appeal to parents, teachers, and anyone who has such tales to reach out to us. There was a time when our grandmothers used to be major sources of stories. However, in the modern day families hardly live with their grandparents. There are gadgets, apps and other tech that has replaced many aspects of storytelling. Beyond all this there is still an old lady in a village who still has an interesting story to tell. They were never formally recorded earlier but with people’s help we can attempt to start popularising and document them,” adds Savio.
New Tinkle characters
Savio has tried to bring in new characters in the popular comic book Tinkle. “We need to understand a child and his needs. Many readers have grown up reading Suppandi or Shikari Shambu. Children today however want to add new characters to suit kids in the modern age. Some such characters are Wingstar (a girl with special powers from Mizoram) Dental Diaries (a vampire who lost his fangs). So Tinkle is also evolving and we are in a constant process of understanding what a child of today needs and wants to read,” he says. Why Not is another new comic character introduced in Tinkle. He is a curious boy from Bengaluru who always asks the question “Why not?”.
Savio says that he has seen many changes happening over the years while at Amar Chitra Katha. “I started out as an illustrator and we thought we had done it all in terms of covering stories from mythology, history and other Indian subjects. We realised there is a lot of content yet to be brought out. We therefore have modern tales of the Paramveer Chakra and a 64 page comic book on Sardar Patel,” he adds.
On countering the competition from modern mediums of storytelling, Savio says that while it’s a big challenge, parents should always play a big part in inculcating a habit of traditional reading.