India Book House started to bring out at least one comic book a month by 1975, and sometimes as many as three. 'And he built a wonderful team and a great brand.' īy the late 1970s, it was selling 5 million copies a year and had a peak circulation of about 700,000 a month. 'They brought in Anant Pai' says Ananthram. To Ananthram's satisfaction, the 1965 Kannada ACK venture was a great commercial success which led to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently.

'The English ACK titles begin from number eleven because the first ten were in Kannada,' clarifies Ananthram. Ananthram which led to the first Amar Chitra Katha comics being produced in 1965-in Kannada, not English. Has this article about the genesis of this popular comic series: The idea and proposal for Amar Chitra Katha was made by a Bangalore book salesman called G.K. The above is an oft-told story of how ACK was founded beginning with 'Uncle Pai', in Mumbai in 1967. The first Indian comic done and released in ACK was Krishna (serial number #11). Īfter quitting Indrajal Comics, Anant Pai started Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) by buying the rights for 10 American fairy tales such as Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Pinocchio. It so happened that a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question 'In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?'. He was shocked that Indian students could answer questions on Greek and Roman mythology, but were ignorant of their own history, mythology and folklore. The comic series was started by Anant Pai in an attempt to teach Indian children about their cultural heritage.

Amar chithra katha