Monday, June 2, 2008

The First Indian Comic Hero:Bahadur - In the Verge of RETURN!

Any Bahadur-Fan can contact Mr.Surti through mail & you can share your thinking wid this great creator!!You can find his mail-id through his PERSONAL SITE where you'll find he's MORE than just a Comic-creator! :-)
http://www.aabidsurti.com/about_aabid.htm
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...YES,this is NO joke !!! :-) Yesterday,there was an article in the ToI on our passion:Indrajal Comics and the major characters like Phantom/Mandrake etc and the on-going madness for ol' IJc copies! :-)
All though this article majorly based on P/M but then in the later parts author mentioned another Indrajal Hero,who was incidentally the FIRST Indian Comic-Hero,Bahadur - the brave!!!
AND THERE'S A VERY GOOD NEWS FOR HIS FANS:The main creator of this desi hero,Abid Surti,is thinking about a revival of this amazing series!!!! Hope he'll do it pretty soon!!! YAYYYYYYYY :D

Some lines from this article:
....."Aabid Surti, the creator of Bahadur, is a happy man when told of the legions of fans his comic character has spawned. Reportedly, there are Bahadur fan clubs in the US, where each comic sells for a staggering USD 100. Surti, a well-known cartoonist then, conceived of Bahadur and started the comic strip in 1976. "Bennett, Coleman & Co wanted me to create an Indian character that could take on the popularity of the three foreign comics that ruled the market in India then—The Phantom, Mandrake and Tarzan," he says. "During that time, the Chambal Valley was becoming increasingly notorious, and there were exhortations to people to group together to fight crime. So I developed the character of Bahadur as someone who helps create a citizens' police force to fight the dacoits."

And the GREAT NEWS:
"Surti is working on reviving Bahadur as a comic strip and says he is in talks with publishers. A movie is also being planned on the character—while one with Anurag Kashyap didn't work out, there's another one on the anvil, says Surti."

Finally,his take on Bahadur-Bela's relationship :
...."Surti has an interesting explanation for why Bahadur sports a saffron kurta and jeans. "A kurta and saffron were symbols of Indianness. And jeans were a Western import and indicated progress. Hence, the combination," he says. "In fact, I have showed Bahadur and his girlfriend, Bela, in a live-in relationship—something unheard of in those times. But it was very well accepted by the audience."You can read the complete article HERE .

SO,HOPE FOR THE BEST,FRIENDS:-)

12 comments:

HojO said...

Reportedly, there are Bahadur fan clubs in the US, where each comic sells for a staggering USD 100

I hope,this Amazing STAT explained how much 'global value' Bahadur has!!!!,,,unlike some of our "own" pple claimed otherwise!! :D

SG

P.S.- I am NOT intend for any controvercy/debate on it,,anyway,that is NOT MY STATEMENT but a FACT,,,And I loved it!!
Jug jug jio Bahadur!!

Comic World said...

A very encouraging piece of information....!Hope Abid Surti will be giving a serious thought to revive Bahdaur strips provided there is a publisher too for it.
The best thing will happen when some publisher identifies public pulse and agrees to revive Phantom/Mandrake comics,and if TOI can do it through Indrajal Comics that will be a dream come true.
I will be asking Abid Surti personally about the revival project and will share the good news,if any!

PBC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PBC said...

Great news, hope this time they will not only continue for long time, but improve the quality too. I love this character.

Ravi said...

Good news to all Bahadur fans. Having grown up with P/M/FG since late 60's, I unfort. was not much into our home grown hero but I will have a go.

HojO said...

#CW:
All we can do right now is,,,Hoping for the best.

#Prabhat:

Yep,that's a gr8 news and I really hope Surti is seroius on that!! :-)

By d way,Quality was always there,only things will be reqrd like some up-dates,modernisations of the concept,,,at the same time RETAINING the Inherent facts like the U-shaped CSF buliding in Jaigarh(man,I love this place!!),ALL ol' charcters like Mukhiya,Sukhiya,Lakhan n needless to mention ,,,Bela!! :D

D

P.S.- I guess it'll NOT be exagaratted if I say,, like Skull Cave for GWW,Xanadu for Mandrake,,,it's CSF bulding/Jaigarh which's unique in d strips of our desi hero! :-)

HojO said...

#Ravi:
Thanks man,,after a long time!how r you??
Having grown up with P/M/FG since late 60's, I unfort. was not much into our home grown hero

I understand it as you introduced wid Ijcs in late '60s when only P/M/F were there and for obvious reason they were doing big(and still they r!!),,,,while Bahadur introduced in the Dec,1976 only!!

By d way,do you'd a subscription of Indrajal Comics?? I guess you'd mentioned it in some blogs,,,,and if it's then I must say,you'd a GALA time in those years!! :D,,,Also very few had this previlage,,,
SUBSCRIBE Ijc was like MY target then(in '89) but unfortunetly it went out just within a year or two of my introductn wid these gems!! :(

Keep coming,,,

Comic World said...

Good news for all Bahadur lovers...i asked personally Abid Surti,the creator of Bahadur,and he is very sure about the revival of Bahadur as comic strip in newspaper initially very soon.:o)

Unknown said...

this piece of info is worth appreciating,,,thanks ,Dara and CW.
I hope TOI seriously gives a thought to start it all over(P/M/B/F/R/D/B) again.

HojO said...

#Chandan:

Welcome! I'd personally written a mail to Abid Surti regarding this pos'ble Return of our action hero & fact is HE CONFIRMED D NEWSSSS!!!
YAY!!
But what he told me,he's lookin' for Newspaper Strip version & NOT Book-format as we used to get through Ijcs!Anyway,a Bahadur comic after a LOOOOONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG TIME ,,,something which WE NEVER THOT TO B POS'BLE!!! :D :D

#ALL:
Any Bahadur-Fan can contact Mr.Surti through mail & you can share your thinking wid this gr8 creator!!
You can find his mail-id through his PERSONAL SITE:
http://www.aabidsurti.com/about_aabid.htm

adibud34 said...

This is awesome news!!! I really hope he tries to make a comic series out of it, while a comic strip isn't bad, a comic book would be so much better!

HojO said...

#Adi:

At lst Abidji ne toh socha hein ek Come-Back(as Bahadur script-writer)ki bade mein,,,,we hope he'll do a gud job there as Newspaper strip,,after taking his reqr time,and after a gr8 sucess there(we'll make sure that!! ;o))) he may be concentrated on a Book-format!!

LETS HOPE 4 D BEST!!YAY!!:D