Dakhni, also known as Deccani, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in India’s Deccan region, combining elements of Hindustani, Kannada, Marathi and Telugu. This year, Comic Con Hyderabad will see a touch of Dakhni culture with Hallubol. “Dakhni has only survived orally,” Rahil explains. “It wasn’t taught in schools, and it never got the recognition to be a ‘legit’ language. But it’s lived on its own for over a century.” Growing up in a Dakhni-speaking household, Rahil felt the absence of his language in popular media.
The duo started Hallubol to fill this gap, using comics to speak on Dakhni culture and also the universal struggles of its people. “Our hope,” Rahil says, “is that readers, whether they speak Dakhni or not, can see the shared humanity in our stories.” Addressing relatable themes like toxic masculinity and family dynamics, Hallubol’s stories present complex social issues in a thought-provoking fashion. Their comic Mard Bann, for example, tells the story of a juice vendor haunted by a shadow demanding he “be a man,” portraying the pressures of masculinity within society.
Yet, Rahil notes that the Dakhni he speaks in Bengaluru is not the same as that in Hyderabad. “It is different because it’s influenced by the local languages in each region,” he says. Hyderabad holds special promise, as the city has always shown strong respect for Dakhni. “In Hyderabad, even people who aren’t from a Dakhni background approach the language with respect,” Rahil adds. As they prepare to bring Hallubol to Comic-Con Hyderabad, a city where Dakhni is most prevalent, they’re inviting attendees to connect with Dakhni culture, to laugh and to see that, as Rahil puts it, “we’re all not so different after all.”