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Performance beyond the panel: (S)exploitation and trafficking in Ram Devineni’s Priya and the Lost Girls

ABSTRACT Positioned at the intersection of comics studies and gender studies, this article examines the process in which the ‘performance’ of Ram Devineni’s comic Priya and the Lost Girls (2019), with a honing narrative intertwined with Augmented Reality, sensitizes its readers towards the issue of sex/human trafficking in India. Throughout the enigmatic journey, Priya, the superheroine in the narrative comes to rescue several women who have fallen into the trap of the sex trafficking racket either due to economical vulnerabilities or some other issues. Priya, in the leading role of a ‘Messiah’ liberates these victims and provides message at the end. The compelling visual metaphors, designs, speech balloons, and the audio elements in this comic pose compelling questions pertaining to the castrated and unsusceptible position of victims in the society and encourage maintaining healthy social relations among people. Within the postulates of gender studies, comics studies, and visual studies, our reading focuses on how comics medium in Ram Devineni’s Priya and the Lost Girls contributes to the process of social sensitization and extend awareness on the prevention, protection, and prosecution of sex trafficking in South Asian countries, especially in the Indian subcontinent.