Priya's Shakti

Indian American film maker Ram Devineni was inspired to create Priya's Shakti in response to the Delhi bus rape in 2012. He travelled around India and parts of southeast Asia for almost a year, consulting with activists against gender-based violence and also with sociologists, philosophers and poets,{{Cite news |author=Jennifer Chowdhury |title = India's Newest Heroine Breaks Rape-Talk Taboo with Comic Book |publisher=NBC News |url = https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/indias-newest-heroine-breaks-rape-talk-taboo-comic-book-n268481 |date=16 December 2014 |orig-year=15 December 2014 }} before collaborating with American comic book designer Dan Goldman, whom he met in New York, to create a graphic novel.{{cite news |author= Geeta Pandey |date=7 December 2014 |title=India's new comic 'super hero': Priya, the rape survivor |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30288173 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=19 December 2014 }}{{cite web |author=P. Claire Dodson |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3064317/acid-attacks-and-augmented-reality-how-priyas-mirror-is-using-tech-to |title=Acid Attacks And Augmented Reality: How Priya's Mirror Is Using Tech To Change India |website=Fast Company |date=28 October 2016 }} Produced in Hindi and English, the comic was available as a free download and was launched at Mumbai Comicon in December 2014, two years after that case.{{cite news |author=Alison Flood |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/18/india-comic-superhero-tackle-rape-women-priyas-shakti-parvati |title=Indian comic creates female superhero to tackle rape |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 December 2014 |access-date=2 June 2015 }}{{cite news |author=Geeta Pandey |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50406618 |title=Priya: India's female comic superhero returns to rescue 'stolen girls' |publisher=BBC News |date=25 November 2019 }} The project's social impact director was Lina Srivastava; in partnership with Aapne Aap Worldwide, an NGO helping women in India and the US, a #standwithpriya selfie campaign was organised and copies were distributed in schools. An exhibition appeared in locations around the world including New York, Torino, Barcelona, London, Sheffield, Rome and Dubai.{{Cite news|title = Groundbreaking Augmented Reality Exhibit Coming to New York's City Lore Gallery |url = https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/idUSnMKWR6wXKa+1e6+MKW20150423|publisher = Reuters|date = 23 April 2015 |type=press release |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310200450/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSnMKWR6wXKa+1e6+MKW20150423 |archive-date=10 March 2016 }}

Priya's Shakti was India's first augmented reality comic book;{{cite news |author=Nita Bhalla |url=http://news.trust.org//item/20141217170700-p24nf |title=Rape survivor turns "superhero" in India's first digital comic |publisher=Thomson Reuters Foundation |date=17 December 2014 |access-date=25 November 2019 }} scanning pages with Blippar brought up animations and true stories, and the Artivive app is now used.{{cite web |author=Binjal Shah |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/priyas-shakti-indian-superhero-comicbook_in_5dda0be8e4b0d50f3290f48d |title=India's First Female Superhero Takes On Sex Trafficking |website=Huffington Post India |date=24 November 2019 }} Associated murals in Mumbai and other cities could also be scanned with a smart phone to play video.

Priya's Shakti tells the story of Priya, a villager from India who is gang raped by men in her village. When she tells her family of her ordeal, they shun her saying she has brought shame on them. The village elders also blame her for "provoking" the men. Ashamed and scared, she flees to the forest to end her life. But the goddess Parvati, queen to the god Shiva, sees her plight and seeks to help her. She enters Priya's body and confronts the men who raped her. The men do not realize Parvati is inside Priya and try to rape her again. Angered, the goddess takes her true form. Meanwhile, Shiva is awakened from his slumber and sees how mortal men are treating his wife. Furious, he curses all mankind to impotency. But Parvati's idea prevails: Priya becomes a superpowered champion of women's rights, who will work to end violence against women by changing society. In the title of the comic, Shakti means "strength". Her tiger nature manifests as a flying tiger on which she rides, called Sahas, "courage" in Hindi.

In Priya's Mirror, the second comic in the series, released in October 2016 at the New York Film Festival in English, Hindi, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Priya and acid attack survivors combat the demon king Ahankar, himself an abuse victim. In a partnership with the Last Mask Campaign, readers could use Snapchat-style filters to share images of their faces as they would be after an acid attack, as a show of solidarity. The comic was written by Devineni with Indian film maker and writer Paromita Vohra, again with art by Goldman.{{cite news |author=Priti Salian |url=https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/priya-s-mirror-highlights-issues-of-gender-inequality-and-violence-against-women-1.151583 |title=Priya's Mirror highlights issues of gender inequality and violence against women |newspaper=The National |date=1 October 2016 |access-date=25 November 2019 }} An augmented reality exhibit and interview at Lincoln Center were part of the release.{{cite web |url=https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2016/films/priyas-mirror/ |title=Convergence: Priya's Mirror |publisher=New York Film Festival 2016 |access-date=25 November 2019 }}

Priya and the Lost Girls appeared in December 2019 and was scripted by Indian American actress and playwright Dipti Mehta, who researched sex trafficking for her one-woman show, Honour; Ruchira Gupta, the founder of Apne Aap, also collaborated on it. Priya finds all the girls have vanished from her village, including her sister, Lakshmi; she rescues them from an underground brothel city run by the demon Rahu, who turns any women who resist to stone, but the rescued girls must then also stand up for their rights against the villagers who refuse to take them back, scorning them as "lepers". Devineni chose this theme for the third comic in the series after visiting the red light district of Sonagachi in Kolkata and talking to women who were in the sex trade after being tricked, or believing they had no other way to earn a living.

Priya's Shakti received a grant from the 2014 Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund, supported by the Ford Foundation. UN Women named the heroine a 2014 Gender Equality Champion.

Priya's Mirror was funded by the World Bank WEvolve programme and received the Special Jury Prize at the 2017 FilmGate Interactive Media Festival in Miami.{{cite news |author=Priti Salian |url=https://scroll.in/article/830288/how-the-world-bank-got-involved-with-a-comic-book-series-on-crimes-against-women |title=How the World Bank got involved with a comic book series on crimes against women |website=Scroll.in |date=26 February 2017 |access-date=25 November 2019 }}

{{Portal|Comics|Feminism|India}}

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• List of feminist comic books
• Rape in India
• Sexism in India
• Women in India

• {{cite journal |last=Bahree |first=Megha |date=December 16, 2014 |title=Meet Priya: A Comic Book Character Out To Fight Rape |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghabahree/2014/12/16/meet-priya-a-comic-book-character-out-to-fight-rape/ |journal=Forbes |access-date=December 19, 2014 }}
• {{cite news |last=Chatterjee |first=Rhitu |date=December 16, 2014 |title=India's New Comic Book Hero Fights Rape, Rides On The Back Of A Tiger |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/12/16/371209381/indias-new-comic-book-hero-fights-rape-rides-on-the-back-of-a-tiger |publisher=NPR |access-date=December 19, 2014 }}
• {{cite news |author= |date=December 17, 2014 |title=Comic book for women's rights launched |url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/448085/comic-book-womens-rights-launched.html |newspaper=Deccan Herald |agency=DHNS |location=Delhi |access-date=December 22, 2014 }}
• {{cite news |last=Lazarus |first=Susanna Myrtle |date=December 16, 2014 |title=More Power to the Pencil |url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/priyas-shakti-rape-survivor-augmented-reality-comic-ram-devineni-dan-goldman/article6689200.ece |newspaper=Hindu |access-date=December 19, 2014 }}
• Smears, Ali. Mobilizing Shakti: Hindu Goddesses and Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence. Religions 2019, 10(6), 381; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10060381
• {{cite news |last=Srivastava |first=Lina |date=December 17, 2014 |title=An Interactive Fight Against Gender-Based Violence: Priya's Shakti |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lina-srivastava/priyas-shakti_b_6336632.html |publisher=HuffingtonPost.com |access-date=December 19, 2014 }}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.priyashakti.com/ Official website]
• [https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d67c06afe0d04000149aba7/1568392857329-IAWT0BRMWGA3U8SLCLZ5/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kAt72yGFwHZjoxtmj75n0VMUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYy7Mythp_T-mtop-vrsUOmeInPi9iDjx9w8K4ZfjXt2dv608ZF5SQ066zrusfA3lZsto2GUPSkfCkjYhXQIm1t1CjLISwBs8eEdxAxTptZAUg/banner1.png?format=2500w Priya Shakti riding her tiger]

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Category:Pantheon Books graphic novels

Category:2014 graphic novels

Category:Graphic novels about women

Category:Feminist comics

Category:Fiction about gang rape

Category:Indian graphic novels

Category:Graphic novels set in India