, is a fictional comic book , that appears in comic books published by Raj Comics. He is a character presented as a medieval “Hasya Samrat” (King of Comedy). The series is primarily humorous, though also incorporates elements of fantasy and horror.
In 2016, reported Bankelal among the four most widely sold comics in India. Raj Comics declared that Bankelal will be among the four comics characters whose animated movies will be released. In 2014, Navbharat Times listed Bankelal among the top 10 comics without which the summers of Indian children were incomplete.
Bankelal was created by Jitendra Bedi, and first appeared in 1987 in the comic book ‘Bankelal Ka Kamaal’ (‘Wonders of Bankelal’) which was written by Papindar Juneja.
According to the book, he is the son of a farmer named ‘Nanku’. His mother’s name was ‘Gulabati’. The couple did not have any children. Gulabati was a devotee of Lord ‘Shiva’ and a child was offered to them as a blessing from the Lord. They named the child Bankelal. He conspires to do evil against king Vikram Singh, but his conspiracies often end up helping Singh, to humorous effect.
For a long time Bankelal was the one true comedic character in Raj Comics who had his own title series. Bankelal’s artwork was helmed by a legend of Indian comics Bedi ji (who was also responsible for Hawaldar Bahadur in Manoj Comics) and was cartoonish and colourful. Bedi ji added his own colloquial Punjabi phrases in a decidedly non Punjabi comic book, Bankelal and other characters would often say Hun Appa Da ki Hou, Hun Appa Da Kuchh nahi ho Sakda, most of the dialogues were appended with laughter ‘Hi Hi Hi’, and in tragi-comic situations the character would say ‘Bu Hu Hu Hi Hi Hi’, crying and laughing the whole time.
