08 June,2025 01:01 PM IST | Mumbai | Akshita Maheshwari
A panel from the graphic novel Lakkadbaggha: The Prologue
In a world packed with larger-than-life superheroes who want to avenge their loved ones and save the world at the same time, comes our simple hero Arjun. He is a humble martial arts teacher with a love for dogs, who turns into a hero to save his four-legged friends. In that, Lakadbaggha (2023) was a unique film, but that's not where it stops. Producer and actor Anshuman Jha has now collaborated with American comic book artist, Brittain Peck to bring us Lakadbaggha: The Prologue, a first-of-its-kind graphic novel adaptation of an Indian film series.
Arjun, our protagonist, turns into a vigilante upon uncovering an illegal animal meat smuggling ring. This was the first draw for Peck, who himself had a pet dog, Ozzie. Peck says, "I met Anshuman for the first time at an alumni meeting in North Carolina. His wife, Sierra, and I were in the same programme at different times. They're just a really delightful couple. And we had just the best time. Even if this project had not come out of that meeting, I felt like I made a new friend, which is kind of rare in adulthood. I don't know if it's different in India. I think in the US we're a little bit more socially scattered from each other. It is harder to make friends as an adult, I find."
Anshuman Jha in and as Lakadbaggha
Peck had his first interaction with Bollywood when he was studying film. "I've seen Lagaan, Agni Varsha, Dishoom," he laughs, "These films represent a different voice than what I was [used to] seeing in the US. I felt that while American movies were getting more and more similar and less willing to take risks, Bollywood films in a lot of different ways excited me with new possibilities."
Films here, though, are very different stylistically than the ones in Hollywood. When asked how he bridged that gap, Peck says, "It wasn't some grand, heroic, legendary story of love on a mountaintop. I could connect with it from my own experiences, as an everyday person and even as an American. The story felt very universal and everyday. For me, it was stories that I had with my own dog growing up," he says, his face instantly lighting up while referring to Ozzie.
Peck was inspired by Tintin when drawing this graphic novel. He was absolutely delighted to discover Tintin's popularity in India. "If you look at American comics in the 1990s, the heroes just kept getting bigger, muscles on top of muscles, everything was extra. The characters, the panels, the words - everything had to pop out," he says.
Brittain Peck
"Looking back, some pages were actually hard to read, because there were too many details, it was too overwhelming. The intent was to really pull you in, overwhelm your senses, much like an American action movie - explosions, cars, always trying to one-up each other. That's fun, but when I look at Indian comics, I notice a different kind of storytelling. They're easy to dive into, clear and simple. Visually, that's something I really like. That kind of simplicity, that's what I aim for in my own work."
On his trip to India, Peck visited various comic book stores and stocked up his collection. He shows us some of his favourites. "I love everything about Chacha Chaudhary comics; the sound effects, some of the panels just made me giggle," Peck continues, cracking up as he recalls some of the jokes, "His big friend with no shirt does ridiculous things like riding a rocket, or when a villain crashes and catches on fire, all his clothes burn off and he runs away naked. There was a levity to everything. When I came across Amar Chitra Katha - I've known a little about Indian folklore, legends, and stories - I realised I have so much more to read and learn."
An extract from the graphic novel Lakadbaggha: The Prologue
When asked what's in store for sequels, he says, "We really want to do things that the films don't include, even things that the film cannot include. There's just a different experience when you sit with a book. It excites me to see kids reading comics; something's going on in their mind, they're experiencing something that's taking them to a new place, but their mind is the vehicle for it. That's why we love making these books so much."
