As a child, Aabid Surti began
drawing by copying cartoons
from scraps of comic pages left
by British troops passing
through Bombay port during
the Second World War.
Though he later created many
local characters for
newspapers in his youth, he
developed his most successful
character only after his
marriage – the innocent yet
shrewd simpleton Dabbuji. The
weekly comic strip looked at the nuances of marriage and
relationships.
At its peak, the weekly cartoon
strip touched a circulation of
more than four lakh copies and
enjoyed a huge fan following
which included former PM Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, singer Asha
Bhonsale and Osho, who often
recounted Dabbuji jokes during
his early Hindi discourses.
It was one of the longest
running Indian comic strips,
enjoying an unbroken run for
more than 30 years in the Hindi
literary weekly “Dharmayug”.
At times, the popularity of this
comic character often eclipsed
Aabid’s fame as a serious
painter and author!
Another comic book character
created by Aabid, which
enjoyed a huge popularity was
Bahadur. Bahadur was the son
of a bandit who helped the
dacoit-ridden villages to set up
their own self-defence system.
Bahadur is currently under
negotiation for a full-length
Bollywood feature film.
Other memorable characters
developed by him include
Inspector Azaad, Inspector
Vikram and Shuja.