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Chitra Katha to be reborn as TV cartoon Mumbai:
Samir Patil, just like any other Indian of 80s, grew up on the diet of comic books
published by Amar Chitra Katha, and now he is planning broadcast animated version
of Indian style Aesop’s fables. Patil, 38, a former McKinsey consultant, recalls
how those stories, based on religious parables and biographies of historical figures,
taught him about the great and lesser-known stories of India in a didactic format
meant for young audiences. Patil, who acquired the publisher two years ago, is
betting that he can do the same for a new generation of Indian children who have
been raised watching TV, sending text messages and surfing the Web, The New York
Times reports. Patil expects the shows to appear first on the Cartoon Network
in India , and he is negotiating deals with the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.
Patil’s team of software and animation experts in Bangalore recently released
an online multiplayer game, The Legend of Katha. The sales and wide popularity
of Amar Chitra Katha comics had fallen sharply in the years before Patil and a
partner, Shripal Morakhia, acquired the ublisher. Now, Patil hopes to take advantage
of a vacuum in children’s entertainment in India ’s otherwise bountiful media
market. Amar Chitra Katha sells about three million comic books a year, in English
and more than 20 Indian languages. It has sold about 100 million copies since
it was founded in 1967 by a newspaper executive, Anant Pai, 80. “The moving finger
writes. What is really important is providing role models. A nation marches ahead,
provided it has role models,” said Pai, whom many Indians, including prime ministers,
affectionately call “Uncle Pai.” Other industry officials caution that it will
take time for comic book publishers to succeed in other media. However, Patil
is ready to take the much needed risk: “I realized that if I don’t take a risk
now, I risk forever thinking about the kind of things that we could have done.
My experience at McKinsey around media and technology convinced me that there
is an opportunity to take some of these brands that have been locked into their
old worlds and truly rediscover them in other forms.” -July
20, 2009
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