The storyteller and listener in Sarnath Banerjee has resulted in a 263 page graphic novel – the research of which took more than three years.
Chatting up novelist Sarnath Banerjee on India’s ‘first second graphic novel’
Not much has changed since the relative success of ‘Corridor’ for author Sarnath Banerjee. Except for his hair, all chopped off. And the fact that he’s married. And the fact that he’s writing an opera in the Black Forest in a sixteenth castle.
The great Indian graphic novel still continues to exist in and around ‘Corridor’ and now Banerjee’s second opus, ‘The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers’. “It’s still in its incubation state – there are a lot of them being created, but none published,” he says, adding it’s important to develop our indigenous take on the graphic form before assimilating it with the European form and losing our voice and possible style, a task that he hopes his own publishing house Phantomville will take over.
Banerjee himself started his fantastical journey with film. A story from ‘Corridor’ was even turned into a claymation film. His thoughts are now veering towards theatre, possibly explaining Rehaan Engineer’s theatrical production of ‘Barn’ at the launch of the book yesterday. “I’m intrigued by the idea of a large space with things happening everywhere, where the audience travels with the action.”
The storyteller and listener in him has resulted in a 263 page graphic novel – a part historical mystery – the research of which took more than three years and involved hanging out in Kolkata bylanes and European museums.
“I always enjoy the research the most – not the 8 hours a day hunched over my drawing board,” he admits. Hardly surprising especially when you discover his next story involves researching a Hungarian pornography production house.
“But I’m publishing that after a good ten years,” he says, waiting for the form to develop in the country in the meantime. Or maybe that’s just how long the research might take.
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