ACP Pradyuman in a comic

ACP Pradyuman and his task force from the long-running crime weekly, CID, have gone between the covers. These characters from the Sony show now feature in a comic book. The first of the series kicks off with Return of The Jewel Thief, and is slated to release in December.

Ready to roll

Each of the series will consist of five books featuring stories from various CID episodes.

ACP Pradyuman (Shivaji Satam), Senior Inspector Abhijeet (Aditya Shrivastav), Inspector Daya (Dayanand Shetty), Inspector Fredricks (Dinesh Phadnis) and forensic expert Dr Niyati (Shweta Kawaatra) will be the key characters along with the others. There are also some characters that do not feature in the serial but have been created especially for the books.

Says CID producer B P Singh of Fireworks Productions, "I conceived this thought a while back. I bought a set of Tintin comics to give as a gift for my friend's child and was hooked on to comics after reading them.

The thought of doing a comic book crossed my mind, and the next we know, it became a work in progress. Our business head, Yash Patnaik, was ready to take on the challenge. And in matter of just six months we are ready to roll."

Quality control

With over 500 stories in bank, CID has no shortage of story ideas. Fireworks will publish the books themselves, with Sony providing the on-air support. "CID completes nine years in January, so even if we publish four stories a month, there is enough to last a decade. We have yet to finalise the marketing part," informs Singh.

He wants it to be a landmark event for television. "It was not an easy task. We have done extensive research on the trend of comic books. We want it to be of international standards backed with an action-packed story and great artwork. Moreover, as it is in book form, we could make the story unfold in different locations."

Celebration time

Incidentally, CID is currently conducting Operation Talaash to look for officers to join ACP Pradyuman in the show. "The jury consisting of John Mathew Matthan, Prahlad Kakkad and Mahesh Manjrekar, have shortlisted five candidates. The jury, along with the viewers, will decide who should be part of CID," informs Singh, who has planned a lavish ninth anniversary bash for the show in January. "CID is the longest-running fiction show on television. That needs to be celebrated."