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In 1978, he founded the Partha Institute of Personality Development, which conducted personality development workshops through correspondence for teenagers. Two years later, Pai launched India’s first comic and cartoon syndicate, Rang Rekha Features, that issued interesting factoids and snippets for children. Amar Chitra Katha released titles by the hundreds and sold books by the millions (it reportedly still sells 3 million copies annually, with its 440 titles having sold more than 100 million copies till date).
#Amar chitra katha india series#
ACK’s easy to read beautifully illustrated stories about brave warriors, exquisitely dressed queens, stately gods, scheming villains and scary demons quickly grabbed the attention of young readers and interest in the series continued to rise. Later, when both groups were tested, the results showed that the students who had studied using ACK had learned more than those who did not!Īs word of this experiment spread, more parents, schools and shopkeepers began buying Pai’s comic books. Under this, one group of students was taught history using ACK and another using traditional methods. To showcase the impact of his comic books, Pai persuaded a Delhi school to run an unusual experiment. Bookshops also refused to stock the series because it was not associated with an established brand.īut things were about to change. Schools would not buy ACK for their libraries because they considered comic books frivolous. Their concern was justified when the series began loosing money in its early years. Knowing that they were taking a risk, the Pai-Mirchandani team began small. After much persuasion, the determined writer managed to convince GL Mirchandani of India Book House to take a chance on Amar Chitra Katha (ACK). This was when the Pai saw the aforementioned quiz show in a television shop in the Karol Bagh market (in Delhi) and was inspired to launch a series of comics based on Indian history and mythology.Īfter leaving his job in 1967, he tried his luck with several publishing houses but his idea was rejected by all of them. Here, his work involved managing Indrajal Comics (a series that brought American comics like The Phantom, Flash Gordon and Mandrake to Indian readers). However, early in his career, he gave up engineering and joined work as a journalist for The Times of India.
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He fell in love with literature at a young age and devoted much of his time to learning several Indian languages.Īfter completing his schooling, Pai was interested in pursuing journalism but on the insistence of his elder brother, he joined the University of Bombay for a degree in chemical engineering.
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17, 1929, in Karkala in Karnataka) Anant Pai was orphaned when he was just two-years-old and grew up with relatives first in Mangalore and later in Mumbai. On his birth anniversary, we bring you the fascinating story of how this master storyteller created India’s most-loved comic series.īorn on Sept. Such was the love that young readers had for Anant Pai that they affectionately nicknamed him “Uncle Pai”. Bridging the distance between convoluted Sanskrit texts and the Enid Blyton’s found in school libraries, this iconic book series taught several generations of Indian children about the country’s rich heritage of folk tales and mythology.
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Upset, he set out to change this by starting a comic-book series that would tell stories from Indian epics through beautifully illustrated, child-friendly narratives.The comic book series was Amar Chitra Katha and the young journalist was Anant Pai, the avuncular writer and illustrator who would go on to become widely recognised as the “father of Indian comics”.įor an Indian child born before the year 2000, Amar Chitra Katha and its engrossing world of stories were synonymous with growing up.
#Amar chitra katha india tv#
In 1967, while watching a TV quiz show on the state-run Doordarshan network, a young journalist realised that while the Indian children on the show could easily answer questions about Greek mythology, they couldn’t answer a simple question about an important character in Ramayana, one of India’s greatest epics. You can disagree with it, but be aware of it.” – Anant Pai “Unless you have continuity with the past, you can’t easily adjust with the present.