The first time Mr Roshan Singh Sambhi saw the conference room named Themyscira, the fictional island home of Wonder Woman, he did a double-take. He was in a video call with executives from DC Comics (DC), and as the camera panned across the room with walls adorned with Wonder Woman memorabilia, reality hit. “I was like, ‘that’s a statue of Wonder Woman’; ‘that’s the name of the island she comes from’. You’re surrounded by all this legacy, and you realise this is very real and I’m a part of it now,” he recalled.
Mr Roshan, 30, is the lead producer and co-writer of DC High Volume: Batman, a newly launched podcast series adapting some of the most iconic Batman story arcs into immersive audio dramas. The first instalment, Batman: Year One (based on the seminal Frank Miller/ David Mazzucchelli limited series from the 1980s), has already dropped, with the next two, The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, set to round out a 30-episode arc.
The project is not just an industry milestone for DC’s foray into audio storytelling. It also marks a breakout moment for Mr Roshan — a Singaporean creative now based in New York — who has steadily built a reputation for adapting complex, visually rich stories into sound.
AN OPPORTUNITY BORN FROM TEMUJIN
This Hollywood opportunity didn’t come overnight. It started with Temujin, Mr Roshan’s audio adaptation of his Yale-NUS capstone project on the life of Genghis Khan. What began as a script read with friends grew into a full-scale production that was eventually nominated for a Webby Award (presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet) alongside the likes of the BBC and HBO.
That project would go on to open doors Mr Roshan hadn’t imagined. Among those early listeners was Fred Greenhalgh, a veteran audio creator who had previously worked on high-profile audio projects like The X-Files. Impressed by Temujin, Greenhalgh became both advocate and collaborator, eventually offering Mr Roshan the chance to work on the Batman series. “Fred told me: ‘You had the guts to make something you believed in, and you took the time and the consideration to make it good’,” he said.
FROM NUS TO DC COMICS
Mr Roshan’s journey into storytelling took a sharp turn from what he thought would be a path in psychology. Initially intending to pursue a career in science, he changed trajectory after attending a 24-hour playwriting event during his first year at Yale-NUS. He found himself writing for 18 hours straight and loving every minute of it. “I realised that if I could joyfully work that long on a script, I’d probably make a better writer than a psychologist,” he said with a laugh.
At Yale-NUS, he immersed himself in directing, composing and writing, aided by an interdisciplinary environment that encouraged experimentation. “At NUS — and certainly at Yale-NUS — you got the chance to do things that you wouldn’t necessarily see as a part of yourself,” he shared. “And especially at that age, it feels like your last chance to really shake up your identity in a big way.”
The experience of pulling together a creative team, staging productions, and learning from failed attempts prepared him for the collaborative nature of professional production. “In my four years at Yale-NUS, I got a lot of basic mistakes out of the way, so that now I’m able to come at my work from a place of experience,” he revealed.
REIMAGINING BATMAN IN SOUND
Adapting a visual icon like Batman for audio poses a unique set of challenges. “Taking a story with legendary art and making it as effective in this totally different medium is definitely a challenge,” Mr Roshan explained. “You need to sculpt every moment. In audio, our composer is ‘colouring’ the image, and our sound designer is ‘drawing’ it.”
Though staying faithful to the original comics, the adaptation nonetheless involved subtle additions to maintain narrative clarity in a purely auditory medium. “One of my proudest moments was writing a monologue for (Batman villain) Two-Face that happens without words in the source material. If no one notices this monologue wasn’t in the comic, then I’ve done my job,” he said. Beyond the audio series itself, Mr Roshan is also showrunning a companion interview series with legendary DC writers and artists.
BRINGING OTHERS ALONG
Even as his star rises, Mr Roshan is focused on bringing others along for the ride. His multimedia company, Andas Productions, has plugged Singaporean creatives into the Batman project, giving them credits and visibility on a global stage. “When we set up Andas, the vision wasn’t just about bringing Singaporeans to Hollywood. It’s also proving there’s world-class talent already in Singapore,” he said. Andas is also working on new adaptations, including a project based on Catskull, the Singapore Literature Prize-nominated novel by fellow graduate Myle Yan Tay (Yale-NUS ’19).
Mr Roshan believes that with the right platforms and partnerships, Singaporean voices can be heard far beyond the island’s shores. “I’ve seen a real appetite for Southeast Asian stories in the US and UK. So the dream is to keep doing the big IP stuff, but also meaningful local and regional stories.”
ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CREATIVES
Asked what he would say to young Singaporeans hoping to carve out a similar path, Mr Roshan doesn’t hesitate: “Finish something you believe in, put it out there, and make sure it is accessible to people,” he said. “There are so many excellent student films that are locked up in MP4 files that will never be seen by the public.”
In an industry driven by visibility and networks, he argues, the work must speak for itself. “In my experience, you won’t always get hired by someone reading your résumé. You get hired because of the fans of your work, and peers who want to work with you. So it’s about what you put out there.” As Gotham’s brooding hero finds new life through sound, Mr Roshan isn’t just reimagining Batman, he’s opening new frontiers for Singaporean storytellers.
