Meet Sailesh, the genius behind the comic “Brown Paperbag”. Lately Brown Paperbag is taking the internet by storm. The comics illustrated by Sailesh are highly relatable to every Indian and I believe that each of us are somewhere like the character he illustrates in his comic.And, now let’s get to know about the young talented man himself-
NewsAurChai: Tell us something about yourself, your personal life, educational background.
Sailesh: I’m Sailesh, although I go by my penname ‘Saigo’. I’m 20, currently pursuing Animation Design in Srishti, Bangalore.
NewsAurChai: What exactly is Brown Paperbag?
Sailesh: Brown Paperbag, formally, is a non-political Indian satire aimed at familial dynamics and societal relationships. Informally, it’s a fun comic highlighting all sorts of relatable situations for Indians.
NewsAurChai: How did this idea come to you?
Sailesh: I’d indulged in reading several webcomics recently, and that addiction conspired with my innate interest in comics to convince me to start my own, possibly as something my friends and family could enjoy. Little did I expect it to blow up the way it did. The reason for its theme is the noticeable lack of Indian satire that is non-political.
NewsAurChai: When did you decide to give it a start? And how?
Sailesh: I started it on a whim. Began drawing the comic mid-June, the very day I had the basic idea for the theme. I decided to release one comic daily, so I waited until I had a decent buffer to start uploading them on the internet.
NewsAurChai: What makes Brown Paperbag stand out so much? Why should people follow this on social media?
Sailesh: Brown Paperbag is unique in terms of being a slice-of-life non-political satire within an Indian context. The main reason for its success is how people find it relatable. It’s one thing to read something and find it funny, but it’s another thing altogether to see an experience from your own life being represented comically.
NewsAurChai: Was it difficult for you to decide to take this as a career path? And what has been the high moment for you in this journey.
Sailesh: I wouldn’t call it a career path (yet), since it’s something I started as a hobby and haven’t really looked at commercializing it so far. It’s certainly a hobby I enjoy immensely and would consider as a potential career path, but my foremost interest lies with 2D animation. An ideal situation would be to incorporate animation into this series, haha.
The ‘high moment’ was without a doubt waking up the day after I started the comic to an incredible influx of followers and positive comments. It encouraged me enough to discard the notion of Brown Paperbag being a leisure time activity, and adopting it as a serious project.
NewsAurChai: Anything that you want people who are into this line to keep in mind for success?
Sailesh: Appeal to things beyond your audience’s funny bone. A personal connection with your work is something that makes people appreciate it more.
