Almost two generations of Indians consider Amar Chitra Katha the definitive comic. Superman, Batman and co were aspirational, but very hard to come by. As western comic book heroes grew increasingly neurotic and un-heroic, Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) thrived, drawing from Indian history and mythology.
Of late, there are signs of a second coming of the brand, with a 20% jump over the last three years. It's a lot more visible, especially at large format bookstores. Says R Sriram, ex-CEO, Crossword, “It's the biggest comic in India - much bigger than Diamond. For Crossword, it's the number one by far.”
According to estimates from publisher Padmini Mirchandani, the brand accounts for 30% of the Rs 30-crore indigenous comic market. ACK is now attempting to make itself future-ready, examining more consumer touchpoints.
While 8% to 10% of annual sales happen over the internet, it plans to harness the medium better, making the comics downloadable for a fee. Plans for an animated show are around as well, once marketing and distribution glitches are ironed out.
Yet, at a certain level, the bare fact that copies can actually be bought at all is a minor miracle. ACK is among the few survivors of the great comic holocaust of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when seemingly unassailable brands like Target and Indrajal went belly up.
Close to its 40th year, the series is driven by the vision of founder and editor, Anant Pai. Uncle Pai, as he's popularly known, speaks of the origin of the comic with obvious enthusiasm. While in Delhi in 1967, he found himself amid a crowd gathered around a TV set, watching an inter-college quiz programme.
The teams were stumped by a question on the mother of Lord Ram, but seemed on familiar ground talking about the Gods at Mount Olympus. Later that summer, his nephew and niece made him a family newspaper, a tribute to Pai, a journalist by calling. He recalls, “There was a poem on daffodils in imitation of Wordsworth and a story about a boy called Robert who lived in a village in England and dreamt of going to London.
I felt there was something wrong when an Indian child has such dreams. Unless you accept your past, even if it's unpleasant, you will never be able to adjust to it.” Pai started ACK as we know it today with Krishna, a character Pai had a great personal interest in. Krishna is still the best selling comic, at over 12 lakh copies; a flagship title, that's been translated in several languages.
In the early days, production schedules were based on whether artists could deliver work on time. Due to the lack of a comic culture, Pai hired people from commercial art. Some like Ram Waeerkar from Ratan Batra remained mainstays of ACK.
The first two years were tough and the comic lost Rs 10,000, a substantial sum 30 years ago. But according to Pai, “The Mirchandanis stepped in and took a lot of interest in sales and promotion.” Part of the strategy was to ensure titles were unveiled with fanfare, effectively using the press to spread awareness. Which led ACK to probably be the first comic anywhere in the world to be endorsed by national leaders - Indira Gandhi launched the issue on Sri Ramakrishna; president Giani Zail Singh was roped in for a book on Mahamati Prannath and Rajiv Gandhi released an issue on the history of the Indian National Congress.
Uncle Pai also became a celebrity in his own right, touring the country and organising quiz competitions. He hit on the idea of distributing free copies at these packed venues. There was also extensive lobbying with schools (he got Baldev Mahajan of Kendriya Vidyalaya to issue a circular sanctioning the purchase of ACK), and seminars at which the comic was given props by heads of government bodies; the director of national museums and the archaeological survey of India, for example.
He sought to make it a truly national brand, bringing in heroes from under-represented parts of the country like Lachit Barphukan from Assam. To better capture the feel of a region, he used illustrators from the territory. Souren Roy did most of the art for issues on Durga, and Devender Singh worked on the Sikh gurus. The amount of research that went into each issue was staggering, with Pai quoting all his sources in the introduction.
The brand's glory days came to a close with TV becoming increasingly popular through the latter half of the 1980s. The fact that he vehemently opposed advertising didn't help either. The comic gradually moved to a more premium position on price, opting for a glossier format and clubbing multiple issues into specials and digests.
Today, ACK has 300 titles available at any given point. While favourites like Krishna, Rama and the Jataka tales were never taken out of circulation,other issues are in rotation. The number of new titles has trickled down. One of the most recent was on Kalpana Chawla.
Pai is very excited about an upcoming special issue that chronicles Tulsidas's version of the Ramayana. He explains, "We have to print at least 10,000 copies. Every month we reprint 20 to 25 titles.” There's a demand for many out-of-print comics with concerned groups clamouring for a reissue - Pai insists they assure him of a certain minimum off-take. With interest in the comics being revived, Mirchandani is gunning for a release schedule of an issue a month from March 2007.
ACK intends making up on lost time and is even open to updating some of its titles making the language more snappy and accessible. Mirchandani admits.
“A new dynamic spirit is going to be required. A lot of it is a bit prosaic - the editorial integrity will be maintained but the rendering has to be contemporised.”
Of late, there are signs of a second coming of the brand, with a 20% jump over the last three years. It's a lot more visible, especially at large format bookstores. Says R Sriram, ex-CEO, Crossword, “It's the biggest comic in India - much bigger than Diamond. For Crossword, it's the number one by far.”
According to estimates from publisher Padmini Mirchandani, the brand accounts for 30% of the Rs 30-crore indigenous comic market. ACK is now attempting to make itself future-ready, examining more consumer touchpoints.
While 8% to 10% of annual sales happen over the internet, it plans to harness the medium better, making the comics downloadable for a fee. Plans for an animated show are around as well, once marketing and distribution glitches are ironed out.
Yet, at a certain level, the bare fact that copies can actually be bought at all is a minor miracle. ACK is among the few survivors of the great comic holocaust of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when seemingly unassailable brands like Target and Indrajal went belly up.
Close to its 40th year, the series is driven by the vision of founder and editor, Anant Pai. Uncle Pai, as he's popularly known, speaks of the origin of the comic with obvious enthusiasm. While in Delhi in 1967, he found himself amid a crowd gathered around a TV set, watching an inter-college quiz programme.
The teams were stumped by a question on the mother of Lord Ram, but seemed on familiar ground talking about the Gods at Mount Olympus. Later that summer, his nephew and niece made him a family newspaper, a tribute to Pai, a journalist by calling. He recalls, “There was a poem on daffodils in imitation of Wordsworth and a story about a boy called Robert who lived in a village in England and dreamt of going to London.
I felt there was something wrong when an Indian child has such dreams. Unless you accept your past, even if it's unpleasant, you will never be able to adjust to it.” Pai started ACK as we know it today with Krishna, a character Pai had a great personal interest in. Krishna is still the best selling comic, at over 12 lakh copies; a flagship title, that's been translated in several languages.
In the early days, production schedules were based on whether artists could deliver work on time. Due to the lack of a comic culture, Pai hired people from commercial art. Some like Ram Waeerkar from Ratan Batra remained mainstays of ACK.
The first two years were tough and the comic lost Rs 10,000, a substantial sum 30 years ago. But according to Pai, “The Mirchandanis stepped in and took a lot of interest in sales and promotion.” Part of the strategy was to ensure titles were unveiled with fanfare, effectively using the press to spread awareness. Which led ACK to probably be the first comic anywhere in the world to be endorsed by national leaders - Indira Gandhi launched the issue on Sri Ramakrishna; president Giani Zail Singh was roped in for a book on Mahamati Prannath and Rajiv Gandhi released an issue on the history of the Indian National Congress.
Uncle Pai also became a celebrity in his own right, touring the country and organising quiz competitions. He hit on the idea of distributing free copies at these packed venues. There was also extensive lobbying with schools (he got Baldev Mahajan of Kendriya Vidyalaya to issue a circular sanctioning the purchase of ACK), and seminars at which the comic was given props by heads of government bodies; the director of national museums and the archaeological survey of India, for example.
He sought to make it a truly national brand, bringing in heroes from under-represented parts of the country like Lachit Barphukan from Assam. To better capture the feel of a region, he used illustrators from the territory. Souren Roy did most of the art for issues on Durga, and Devender Singh worked on the Sikh gurus. The amount of research that went into each issue was staggering, with Pai quoting all his sources in the introduction.
The brand's glory days came to a close with TV becoming increasingly popular through the latter half of the 1980s. The fact that he vehemently opposed advertising didn't help either. The comic gradually moved to a more premium position on price, opting for a glossier format and clubbing multiple issues into specials and digests.
Today, ACK has 300 titles available at any given point. While favourites like Krishna, Rama and the Jataka tales were never taken out of circulation,other issues are in rotation. The number of new titles has trickled down. One of the most recent was on Kalpana Chawla.
Pai is very excited about an upcoming special issue that chronicles Tulsidas's version of the Ramayana. He explains, "We have to print at least 10,000 copies. Every month we reprint 20 to 25 titles.” There's a demand for many out-of-print comics with concerned groups clamouring for a reissue - Pai insists they assure him of a certain minimum off-take. With interest in the comics being revived, Mirchandani is gunning for a release schedule of an issue a month from March 2007.
ACK intends making up on lost time and is even open to updating some of its titles making the language more snappy and accessible. Mirchandani admits.
“A new dynamic spirit is going to be required. A lot of it is a bit prosaic - the editorial integrity will be maintained but the rendering has to be contemporised.”
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