Appupen interview: On adapting Vaadivaasal into a graphic novel with Perumal Murugan

This is the heavenly setting in the book before the battle between man and beast kicks off and the book starts to swarm with dark shadowy figures. Bengaluru-based graphic novelist and artist George Mathen, better known as Appupen — known for his satirical comics and allegorical graphic novels depicting dystopian worlds — manages to capture the inherent power of the mighty Jallikattu bull in his sketches.

Be it drawing the reader’s attention to the bull’s bejewelled black hoofs as the animals jauntily trot down to the Jallikattu venue or when this heavily muscled animal with its pointed white horns stands menacingly over its helpless victim. Acclaimed author Perumal Murugan and Appupen have adapted CS Chellappa’s famed short Tamil novella Vaadivaasal into a graphic novel. The story unfolds at a Jallikattu in Chellayipuram near Madurai. Vaadivaasal’s English version, published by Simon & Schuster India, was launched recently, while Tamil and Bengali versions are already on book shelves in stores.

Perumal Murugan on Jallikattu

In a recent interaction with a Bengaluru audience, Murugan confessed the challenge of creating a comic from Chellappa’s book. The difficulty, he shared, lies in interweaving the ‘nuances’ and ‘layered’ elements of the novel, for Vaadivaasal is not just the story of young Pitchi who seeks revenge against the prized Kaari bull for goring his father to death.

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Chellappa is a master at evoking the natural, loving bond villagers share with their cattle through little details while telling his story. He would show how Jallikattu bulls are treated like royalty and, in turn, how these animals would never hurt children of the house or the person who tends to it.

Further, Murugan points out, Vaadivaasal also taps into the depth of the village zamindar’s ego and his manly pride in his Jallikattu bulls, which cannot be tampered with. “In the end, there’s also a dramatic twist in the story which makes us ask who is the human and who is the beast,” says Murugan. To naysayers about the sport, Murugan asserts that Jallikattu is safer now because of the new rules.

“The bull cannot be teased with chilli or alcohol. There are much less deaths happening too,” he adds, explaining that songs around Jallikattu are found in Sangam literature, which makes this over 2,000 year old sport so much an intrinsic part of Tamil culture. Though the Supreme Court has upheld a law allowing Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, this bull-taming festival continues to agitate animal rights activists.

Appupen on jallikattu

In an interview with The Federal, Appupen, who had jumped at the idea of teaming up with Murugan to create a graphic novel, calls jallikattu a great ‘leveller’. “Look at it this way. Boys from the lower strata of society get a chance to become real heroes and get feted by the zamindar. They also get a chance to marry the landlord’s daughter,” says Appupen, who had visited Jallikattu events in Palamedu in Madurai last year to soak in some sights about the sport.

The image of hundreds of bulls herded one-by-one into a long corridor that lead to the ‘vaadivaasal’ is an “unbelievable spectacle,” chuckles Appupen, who is no stranger to rural life having grown up in a small village in Kerala. Disturbingly, he also witnessed a boy being gored and only learnt later that he had died after seeing his posters which celebrated him as a hero at the next jallikattu event.

Partnering with Perumal Murugan

Appupen’s earlier graphic novel, Dream Machine: AI and the Real World (Context), which he worked on along with a French scientist Laurent Daudet, talks about ‘promises and perils’ of Artificial Intelligence technology. He was the writer for the comic and Daudet was the one to guide him on technical aspects of AI.

But working with Murugan, a storyteller, helped Appupen to hone his own storytelling skills. They ‘jammed’ so well that another graphic novel is on the anvil — it can either be Perumal’s Poonachi or Sundara Ramaswamy’s Tamarind Tree, reveals Appupen, who published his first graphic novel in 2009.

Partnering with Perumal has given Appupen ‘more confidence’ in his own storytelling skills. “For example, I felt good when he liked my idea to begin Vaadivaasal with a Tamil village setting. It starts very differently in the novel,” explains Appupen. But, there’s also another reason for Appupen to provide a geographical setting.

“When the publisher Kalachavadu Kannan suggested the idea of ‘Vaadivaasal’ at the Festival du Livre in Paris, I knew it ticked all the boxes the western audience wanted. They don’t want to read about people in Indian cities partying and dating, they want to see suffering and problems in India, women and caste issues,” reveals Appupen, who participated in a graphic novel residency at Maison des Auteurs in France in 2021 and got an idea of the demands of the international market.

Indian graphic novel market

The Indian graphic novel market, dominated by Tintin, Asterix, Marvel and DC Comics, is still very nascent and readership lags for Indian comics, says Appupen. And, for an Indian comic to be successful and generate revenues, it has to be sold in major international markets like France, Germany, UK and US, he adds.

“We don’t make much money from local sales,” admits Appupen, who hails from advertising and even now makes his bread and butter from brand marketing. According to Appupen, that’s also one reason Indian comics fail to match international standards. “People don’t take it seriously and it ends up being more of an ego trip,” he adds.

When he started out in the mid-2000, there were just a handful of them like Sarnath Banerjee and Kerala artist Toms, he points out, but now the market is full of Indian comic creators. Appupen, however, is having a dream run in the international market. His Dream Machine, first published in France in October 2023, has now been released in the UK, Germany and US by the famed MIT Press. In fact, his visualisation of AI tech is being used to teach students at Saclay University in France.

“Nobody has visualised how LLM works and so my artwork has become popular. We have also simplified the tech through the dream-like sequences of the main protagonist Super Hugo, who has superpowers. There’s talk now on how we can probably use this character to explain other emerging technologies,” he points out.

A wistful Appupen points that India is teeming with stories, different kinds of landscapes, rich mythologies, unique situations but few are tapping into this wealth of ideas. But, this artist is not giving up and pinning his hope on online sales, self-published and web comics that are slowly breathing more life into the Indian graphic novel.