Remember the times when we could not wait for the summer vacations to start so that we could go to our nearest book store or library and get those comics to make our afternoons a little less long and boring? We would rent them out for a day and finish them in an hour and get a few more! With comic books evidently being such a rage in our country, Rajeev Tamhankar, founder of TBS Planet talks about his love for comic books and how he came up with the idea of a content studio. 

TBS Planet has a range of comic books across genre from Indian action super heroes to comedies to horror to thriller. You will find these amazing comics in all leading online and offline bookstores.

This interview is exclusively taken by Business2business capturing the strengths, hurdles and exciting future plans for TBS Planet:

Business2business: How would you describe your company in a few words? / Describe your product/service?

Rajeev: We are a comic books startup. Started in July 2016, we develop comics around different genres - action, comedy, horror, mythologies etc. Our superheroes - Ved, Varun, Karma and Yug have been quite popular. 

Business2business: What made you start working on this idea/concept?

Rajeev: I loved writing as a kid. When I was ten year old I used to write and doodle comics in my school notebooks. But I was only able to give writing a full-fledged shot when I joined Flipkart. I wrote corporate satire titled - "Get Corporated before you get fired!" A lot of readers wrote to me saying that I should have written this in a comic book format like Dilbert. And that gave me the idea for the first time that I could start a comics venture. 

Business2business: What gap are you filling in the market today?

Rajeev: Comics in India has been a dying industry since the late 90s. A lot many companies like Tulsi Comics, Manoj Comics etc got shut down. But I think now is the right time for this industry. With events like Comic Cons gaining traction and people open to read graphical content both in print and digital mediums, I believe comics would make a come-back. 

Business2business: What is your TG?

Rajeev: We believe comics are for all ages. Even people of our age today read comics. I have seen mostly 20-30 years folks at Comic Con events though. 

Business2business: When did your company begin to gain traction?

Rajeev: Last year in August, we got first Bollywood movie comics contract - A Flying Jatt. Soon after we got contract from Ajay Devgan Films for Shivaay. This was the tipping point I suppose.

Business2business: Where do you see your company in a matter of 5 years? / What are the future plans?

Rajeev: In next few years we will be heavily focusing on building distribution network across India and making the characters popular. We can later look at moving internationally.

Business2business: What is the biggest hurdle you face/have faced?

Rajeev: Comics is a very difficult market to enter. Requires the right scripting, sketching, inking, coloring, printing, sales and marketing. All the steps were learning curves for us. But figuring out comic designing was the toughest part. 

Business2business: What do you love the most about your team?

Rajeev: Very passionate and energetic folks. They are basically hustlers. And we are a  family of hustlers together. 

Business2business: If you weren't building a start up, what would you be doing?

Rajeev: Job in Sales/ Marketing.

Business2business: What is your success motto?

Rajeev: Whenever in doubt of choosing speed over perfection, always choose "speed" for your startup. Perfection will be built over time.