In the wake of the gruesome Delhi gang rape and murder in December 2012, US-based Director and Creator Ram Devineni created Priya – branded as India’s first female superhero – a rape survivor, to combat gender-based violence through the medium of comic strips. Since then, Priya has taken on issues like sex trafficking, acid attacks, and in the pandemic struck the year of 2020, issues like COVID-19 and mental health.
The character was named Gender Equality Champion by UN Women and the team has now released an animated short film along with the comic. Voiced by actors from India and the US like Mrunal Thakur as Priya, Vidya Balan and Rosanna Arquette as Sahas, the series hopes to address social perils amongst the youth community and create empathy and identification with survivors.
Here’s Mitali Mukherjee in conversation with Ram Devineni, the mind behind Priya, and Mrunal Thakur, actor and the voice of Priya, on how Priya has evolved in a pandemic year and what their short film hopes to address.