‘Whistle podu’ for this yellow-powered cartoonist 

CHENNAI : After two years, Chennai is celebrating the return of the Chennai Super Kings. Whistle Podu is going viral and fans are embracing the yellow power. Meanwhile, city-based artist Vijay Ashokan and his team from VA Studios released a video titled Draw CSK, Comic For Kids. It received 2,805 views, and their subscribers shot up from 20 to 77 in a day. “The CSK video took one week to complete and it’s a teamwork of six of us. It was challenging to visualise the idea of drawing different faces through letters and jersey numbers, and especially understanding African faces like Bravo’s was a huge task,” explains the 25-year-old. 

Once the basic storyboard and sketching was decided, the animation part got easier. The cartoon video unveils tricks to draw the faces in an easier way for kids. “The idea worked only because it stood out. And the audience would generally go for a video that is trending rather than read a book. We never promoted the video, it was completely an organic reach. I think good quality and content will naturally fetch you a good audience. We wanted to make it universal so this does not have voice over or subtitles,” he says. 

Vijay’s main focus is to keep the art of comic books alive. Starting with films, animations and now virtual reality, they recently ventured into comics. He believes that if the themes of the books are linked to burning issues and commercial blockbusters then there are huge chances of them becoming a hit. “This is an initiative to nurture the drawing skills of youngsters. My first comic was published at the age of 19. Indrajith is the latest. Reading comics helps wire the brain differently, and improves your language and visual skills,” says Vijay who designed a comic book for CSK in 2012. 

VA Studio was started in 2014 and officially registered in 2015. They have a diversified team of cinematographers, editors, animators, and freelancers. “There are experts from different categories in our team. So we select the members for a particular project based on the requirements,” he shares. The team has completed more than 35 videos. They are currently making a live-action web series themed on thriller. There are eight episodes and they are in the final stages of editing. Expect the series by end of May.