Timeless Odia Crime Drama 'Dasyu Ranjan’ Soon to be on OTT platform, Teaser Released

Bhubaneswar, September 1: Get ready to dive into the enigmatic world of 'Dasyu Ranjan' as never before! Unveil the captivating aura of legendary Odia mystery writer Pramod Kumar Panda’s iconic 'Dasyu Ranjan' Series, a timeless crime drama that has held audiences spellbound since the 70's. 

Experience the classic tale reborn in the form of immersive motion comics, weaving art and storytelling into a mesmerizing blend. Stay tuned for the exclusive release on AAO NXT, the first independent Odia OTT Platform in Odisha, where the past meets the future of entertainment.

Leading City-based award-winning animation filmmaker and one of the initiators of AAO NXT OTT Ranjit Mohanty who is also the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Pacad Animation Studio and Pacad Comics said ``I dreamt of this project since 2011, I started the motion comics in 2015 taking consent from the original writer of the short novel series “Dasyu Ranjan”. Unfortunately I lost most of the data due to hard drive crash made by a miscreant. The main illustrator sadly committed suicide three years back. Again in 2020 with another three artists from AAO, I tried to re-generate the whole graphics and characters which took eight months.’’

``Again there were some issues and I had shrugged alone to re-create the whole graphics and then done the motion part. This was also a strenuous journey for almost 11 months all alone. That time I also had faced lots of difficulties on personal side. Then another it took time to decide on the release and the full version was broken down to six chapters,’’ recounts Mohanty.

Even he admitted that there was no budget for English dubbing and he had to borrow money from a friend and AAO NXT to buy an AI license for the English dubbing.

 ``Again I waited for another eight months to do the special effects and sound, theme tune and Odia dubbing with a very shoestring budget of less than $500,’’ he explained adding now after the teaser trailer will be released and followed by the OTT release.

DASYU RANJAN - BACKGROUND:

Legendary Odia mystery writer Pramod K. Panda’s ``Dasyu Ranjan'' as a graphic novel is a much awaited crime drama to be seen visually as the narration itself has been quite spine-chilling and classic in nature. It was immediately a runaway success. Despite 40 years since its launch the story holds relevance of its plot where the society is succumbing to the cruel hands of powerful few. A hero is needed to restore the balance.

INCEPTION:

So to conceive and give such a popular novel a modern twist, Pacad Comics with Kaustav Dreamworks had come up with this pioneering idea and endeavour in developing an international standard Graphic novel in multiple languages looking at the emerging trend of the generation today. The book shall be available in all current platforms. 

ADVANTAGES: 

•    Despite the Indian market being constantly opening up to comics and graphic novels; the supply has been less or of not so great value.

•    The demand is going to get more furious in the very close future.

•    There is no clear market leader yet.

•    We can have the early arrival advantage for the long term benefit.

•    Recently the on-going popular event like Comic Con India had given immense boost to the Indian comics Industry and allied merchandise product/s, licenses and intellectual property rights of the content.

•    Along with the motion comics, all the merchandise items e.g. custom designed Velo Sniper, protagonists vehicle equipped with all modern warfare and safety features would be marketed as toys and fancy gift items. Wardrobes like the hooded jacket of ``Dasyu'', custom designed logo plated belts, laptop skins, mobile guards would also be the part of such venture. Other than this Urban cityscapes named Udrapolis and Arka Heights are also inspired from Odisha’s ancient names.