Theatre group goes online with new comic series

Founder and chief mentor of the group Dushyanth Gunasekharan along with their in-house illustrator Priscilla Dillen have come up with their first web-comic series titled The Adventures of Pandi and Meenakshi. The comic strips that have been shared on social media (one panel a day) is an informative conversation between Pandi, a street dog and Meenakshi, a street cat.

“Comics are very close to the role-playing format that we follow in theatre. We have script, narratives and characters in both. Since we are in a locked-down period, we decided to make use of the time to create content that’s relevant to what we are going through as a community. That’s how the idea of a comic series developed,” says Karthik, the creative head of CreaShakti.

As a theatre company, CreaShakti has always been at the forefront in engaging with the audience in innovative ways. “The core of any theatre is storytelling.At times like these, we need to put out relevant and responsible content to the audience. The Adventures of Pandi and Meenakshi is not an extended comic; we are creating only three strips per day. Through these two characters, we are looking at the entire lockdown experiences. Rather than being preachy, we are showcasing a healthy conversation on what’s happening around through the eyes of a cat and a dog,” he says.

In the future, the team is planning to make the series into an illustrated book. “The response to the content is great and many have been asking us to compile and make it into a book format,” Karthik shares.