Shikari Shambu

Shikari Shambu is an Indian comic character created by Vasant Halbe and Luis Fernandes for the Tinkle magazine in 1983.^[1] Shikari Shambu, with his trademark hunter's hat pulled down over his eyes, is one of the flagship characters of Tinkle.

Shambu is a cowardly and lazy shikari (hunter) whom the rest of the world perceives as courageous. He always tries to run away from dangerous animals, but due to some stroke of luck always ends up as a hero. He lives with his wife Shanti. In The Legend of Shikari Shambu (Tinkle Magazine No.573), it was revealed that Shambu, before being called "Shikari" Shambu, fell on a tiger and knocked him out. It was after this incident that he got the name "Shikari" Shambu.

Origins

By 1988, Tinkle was already on its way becoming the most popular children’s magazine in India. Their biggest rival that time was another children magazine named Target, run by Living Media. Unlike Tinkle, Target was more of a narrative magazine, with a few pages of comics. Their flagship character that time was Detective Moochhwala (Hindi for "the man with a mustache") by Ajit Ninan. Moochhwala who was a detective with penetrating eyes and a huge mustache. Tinkle decided to create a competing character. Subba Rao and Dhruva, two of the creators at Tinkle, came up with the proposal for such a character. They decided to base this new character on a boastful but cowardly big game hunter in the then famous television drama, I Love Lucy.

Luis Fernandes then worked on producing the first story, which was originally named "Shyju", before Shahid Hidayat prefixed Shikari (Hindustani for "hunter") to the name. Some of his editorial team-mates had reservation over the use of the name Shikari, as the wildlife conservation theme was in its prominence. But, the sheer charisma of the name, they and the editor Anant Pai, decided to let it continue. But, contrary to the name, the creators ensured that Shyju never would shoot or kill any animal in any of its episodes. More than that, creators slowly even disassociated him from his trademark hunting gun, after few episodes. The "non-violence" policy of Tinkle also resulted in Shyju being portrayed as more of an explorer than a hunter.^[2]

One of the reasons for the popularity of Shikari Shyju, was due to the comical illustrations of the artist, Vasant Halbe. Halbe, who was a freelancer at Tinkle that time, had impressed the editorial team with his earlier works. Once he was confirmed officially as the artist for the series, he showcased his character sketches, of which a drawing of Shikari with his Topi (hat) pulled down over his eyes, caught everyone’s attention. The sketch went on to be the among the flagship character of Tinkle.^[3] In 1997, Savio Mascarenhas replaced VB Halbe as the illustrator.^[4]

References