Setting a trend of sorts,Illuminati’s Agent Vinod is thefirst film in the history of Indian cinema to have commissioned a full-fledgedgraphic novel to compliment a film.
Titled the “The Jungfrau Encounter”, the meaty 90 pager iswritten byYogesh Chandekar with art by Saumin Patel and is published byWestland Ltd .
Backed by the major publisher, The Jungfrau Encounter willkick-start a graphic novel series that will run parallel with the Agent Vinodfranchise .Not an adaptation of Illuminati action thriller, the book, setin the same fictional universe is an original novel which introduces AgentVinod .
Confirms Paul Vinay Kumar, publisher, Westland Ltd, “Thegraphic novel (based on “Agent Vinod”) we are doing is called “The JungfrauEncounter” and does not follow the film script. It talks about the introductionof Agent Vinod, so in a way, it is setting the tone of the character. We didn’twant to have a straight adaptation of the film, that is why the name of thenovel is different. We were given the script to understand the character andthe mood of the film. Based on this, we have a new story that talks about theorigin of the lead character. Thus, there is a degree of independence here andthe plot varies.” Adding that “All Bollywood films cannot be convertedinto graphic novels because you need to have a sense of curiosity and novelty,and also a very strong character. It is an experiment for us and if we receivea good response from our readers, we will continue with the franchise. Saif AliKhan was involved in the beginning as he liked the idea.”.
If that wasn’t all ,Saif Ali Khan himself has written aforeword for the book which also features an afterword by director SriramRagahvan introducing the characters of the film.
“The Jungfrau Encounter” revolvesaround four mysterious strangers meeting at a restaurant high up in the BerneseAlps of Jungfrau. They are there to settle a score with Agent Vinod, who isresponsible for the predicament each of them are in.
Says director Sriram Ragahvan “Except for the firstsequence in which I used some elements from the novel and the style, both of ushave been working independently but in sync, in an effort to take Agent Vinodbeyond the movie. If the film works we, could flag off a popular fiction seriesthat runs parallel with the movie franchise”.
Says producer DineshVijan “We’ve often said that agent Vinod is an inspired crossbetween the Tintin comics and the Bond series. So nothing could be morebefitting than releasing this brilliant comic book which gives us an unseenglimpse into the wild wild world of Agent Vinod!”.
Priced at Rs. 295, Agent Vinod ‘s “The JungfrauEncounter” will release beforethe film and will be available at all leading bookstores and with major onlineretailers.
Shot in over 12 countries including Morocco, Russiaand Latvia,the highly anticipated action-adventure –Saif Ali Khan and KareenaKapoor starrer Agent Vinod directed by SriramRagahvan is all set to release on the 23rd of March 2012 .
