Indian superhero Doga to come alive onscreen
After divesting the coal mafia in Gangs of Wasseypur, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap plans to make a film on Raj Comics’ superhero Doga, the rustic comic book hero, who is India’s answer to Batman. The project is already on the roll.
And if sources are to believed it would at least be a Rs 70 crore plus project. The film is being co-produced by Raj Comics and Phantom Films.
Doga is hugely popular and since its debut issue in 1993 there have been 200+ comics. For the uninitiated, Doga is a vigilante superhero who wears a dog mask. He is an orphan who was raised as Suraj in Chambal in the midst of brutal dacoits. He moved to Mumbai as a youth and called it home. Beneath the glitter and shine of the skyscrapers, the city of Mumbai hid an ugly face that was deeply scarred and infested with drugs, prostitution, land mafia and organised crime. The cries and miseries of the weakest and downtrodden pushed Suraj to the edge and he emerged as Doga to take on the wrongdoers.
The film will mark Raj Comics’ debut in Bollywood and talking about it, Manish Gupta, CEO, Raj Comics says, “It had always been our dream to bring out our superheroes from the confines of comics pages to the wonderful world of cinema. That is but a natural progression for us.”
Apparently, Gyan Prakash, a historian from Princeton University had been researching for his book Mumbai Fables, which is when he fell in love with the character. His friend Anurag Kashyap turned out to be a childhood fan of Doga. Prakash met them and arranged a meeting with Kashyap and it was decided that the superhero would be brought alive on the big screen. The buzz is Kunal Kapoor has been offered to play Doga but Manish says that he is one of the potential contenders.
Talking of the superheroes, apart from Shaktimaan and Krishh, no other Indian superhero has managed to click with the viewers. Did they have any apprehensions about the project?
Manish explains that the most important thing for any film is a strong story coupled with characters that have a deep characterisation. “There have been generations who have grown up reading comics. We owe it to these millions of fans to bring these superheroes alive on the silver screen. As far as the commercials are concerned, we are certain the film would be a blockbuster. Our biggest challenge is to live up to the expectations of the fans. There would be some necessary adaptations related to the medium and we need to be very diligent to ensure it does not alienate the fans. Otherwise we don’t have any apprehensions.”
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