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User Not Found | Jul 19, 2016
While introducing YOMICS and his vision, Uday spoke about his passion project:
"Comics, or how we more aptly call them today, "Graphic Art", started almost 35,000 years ago. No, I am not making this up. At that time in the area what is now Chauvet, France, the people did not know, that what they were creating was the first comic, but that's what it pretty much was. I am referring to the prehistoric cave paintings which are the oldest instances of man's fascination with this art.
"Comics have been one of our oldest and most basic ways of expressing ourselves, and it has been a fascination of mine from childhood right up till now.
"Graphic Art as an industry has not seen much prominence in the world and even much less here in India, yet when I look around myself, I can't help but notice that our culture and everything that makes us Indian is steeped in color and imagery – which is the very basis of Graphic Art. It is part of our customs and traditions and even most of our religions are heavily dependent on that same color and imagery.
"Having so much of it around us in our culture, it is strange that we as a people have not been able to adopt Graphic Art as a means of entertainment in a much bigger way. Apart from that, I also believe that there is something very enjoyable and entertaining about Graphic Art. It takes us into a world created by images, eases us into its narrative through color, yet engages the mind just enough to let us imagine it coming to life. It is suspension of disbelief taken to an all new level and what one gets out of it is a unique and portable way of entertaining ourselves that we might have forgotten in the last 35,000 years or so.
"My endeavor is to bring this art and this form of entertainment back and use the lure of our movies to help excite and entice the first lot of readers but that will only be the beginning. For once you enter this world, I intend to take you to new places and explore brand new characters and stories which I cannot do through any other medium except this one.
"So whether you are 10 or 80 there is no age that the fun needs to stop, there is no age to stop believing in the fantastic and the unimaginable, there is no age that should limit enjoyment of art of any kind.
"So for the sake of a 35,000 year old art, take this journey with me and help me bring the joy of comics back to you.
"On behalf of Yash Raj Films, I would like to thank Abhishek Bachchan for taking time out to launch the DHOOM Yomics and both Salman Khan and Rani Mukerji for their wishes and kind words on this occasion."
Uday Chopra
