AMAR CHITRA KATHA

#ashokasays Did you know 105:

AMAR CHITRA KATHA:

 
Many of us have grown reading this beautiful set of comics.. Amar Chaitra Katha.. I'm sure many of us were eagerly waiting to get our copy each month and don't know how many times we read over and over. And there is no doubt that it was this set of comics which thought us history and mythology (Even mythology is our history) of this amazing nation apart from our history books..
I'm sure you would like to know some more facts about ACK..

1. ACK was founded by Anant Pai fondly known as Uncle Pai in 1967.  He was shocked that Indian students could answer questions on Greek and Roman mythology, but were ignorant of their own history, mythology and folklore..He wanted to acquaint Indian Children with their heritage and believed. That it would develop their self esteem.

2. But the Outlook magazine in an article also says that The idea and proposal for Amar Chitra Katha was made by a Bangalore book salesman called G.K. Ananthram which led to the first Amar Chitra Katha comics being produced in 1965—in Kannada, not English. “The English ACK titles begin from number eleven because the first ten were in Kannada,” clarifies Ananthram. To Anathram’s satisfaction, the 1965 Kannada ACK venture was a great commercial success which lead to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently, and the rest is history. “They brought in Anant Pai” says Ananthram. “And he built a wonderful team and a great brand.”

3. ACK has sold more than 90 million copies in 20 Indian languages.

4. ACK was the first publication to combine the comics art style with ancient Indian stories.

5. There are totally about 449 issues done so far. Mahabharata is one of their largest ones which is available in a 3 volume of 1300+ page set.

6. The continuous popularity of the comics led to reprints being issued frequently, which ensured that the back-issues remained in print throughout the seventies and the eighties. At the height of its popularity, in the mid-eighties, it had been translated into Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu and selling half a million copies a month. Some titles were also translated into French, Spanish, German, Swahili, Fijian, Indonesian, and Serbo-Croat.

Never the less I feel there is no two thoughts when I say that people who have created these comics and the comics themselves have been a part in shaping today's generation.

INCREDIBLE BHARATHA