Cover Illustration · Visual Worldbuilding
Create cover illustrations for two graphic novel adaptations of the Baahubali universe — Chaturanga and Queen of Mahishmati — that could hold their own against the visual scale of one of Indian cinema's most ambitious franchises, while establishing a distinct identity on the page.
Baahubali is a world built on excess — epic scale, operatic emotion, a visual grammar borrowed equally from classical Indian sculpture, Hollywood blockbuster, and Telugu folk tradition. The covers needed to carry that world's weight while making a case for the graphic novel as its own distinct object: not a tie-in, but a work that could stand on a shelf and be taken seriously.
The two covers were designed to function as a pair — different in palette and mood, but unmistakably from the same world.
The two covers were designed to function as a pair — different in palette and mood, but unmistakably from the same world.
Chaturanga is a cover about strategy and shadow — chess pieces from a South Indian tradition arranged on a reflective surface, the geometry of power made literal. The image is cool, almost sculptural, lit from a single source as if the pieces are being studied by someone deciding a war.
Queen of Mahishmati is its counterpoint: a woman with her back to us, walking toward a throne she has not yet claimed. The image is warm, intimate, and formally very simple — because the power here is not yet exercised.
It is approaching.
It is approaching.
Two covers, one world. The challenge was to make each image feel complete alone and more resonant together.
Project: Chaturanga / Queen of Mahishmati • Author: Anand Neelakantan • Publisher: Westland Books
Studio: Studio Apara • Scope: Cover Illustration
Studio: Studio Apara • Scope: Cover Illustration
