Applause buys rights over Amar Chitra comics
Aditya Birla group-led Applause Entertainment announced their flagship partnership with Amar Chitra Katha on their Instagram. The content management studio has acquired the license of the entire catalog which has over 400 Amar Chitra Katha tiles. The comic gallery would now be transformed into high-quality animated videos, tailor-made for the international audience.
Chitra Katha library is voluminous and is available in over 20 languages. It covers all the epics mythologies, fables, and stories of brave heart popular in the Indian sub-continent. Founded by Anant Pai in the 1960s, Chitra Katha became a pioneer storytelling comic for children in India. Despite having a niche audience who would be interested in Indian mythology, Chitra Katha managed to sell like hotcakes. Estimates suggest that over 1.5 million copies were sold in the first year of the release itself.
With the wide global readership of the comic to date, it isn’t surprising there was a conversation about bringing the comic into the digital space.
To allure young readers, the Amar Chitra Katha app was launched in 2018, the app allows the readers to subscribe to a monthly plan and access 300 + titles. The themes are divided into several catalogs, to make it easy for the young generation readers who prefer to read on their devices. Chitra Katha is also present on all social media platforms including Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook
Speaking on the announcement, Mr. Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment said, “At Applause, we only strive to deliver the best in storytelling. Over the last four years, we have significantly pushed the envelope in curating and creating the most disruptive stories for Indian audiences that cut across genres and geographies. Amar Chitra Katha is a household name in India with a diverse and celebrated library that deserves to be retold. Like millions of other people, I have grown up reading these iconic comics and as a child, imagined them with dynamic visuals and dramatic sound & action. This is our opportunity to realize that dream. This partnership is also a small step towards helping export Indian culture by taking a unique and deep-rooted cultural brand like Amar Chitra Katha to screens across the globe.”
Preeti Vyas, President & CEO, Amar Chitra Katha said, “At Amar Chitra Katha, we have been custodians of India’s stories for over 54 years, and we are thrilled to partner with Applause Entertainment to take our rich storytelling heritage to Indian and global audiences through animation. As the nation’s favorite storyteller, our mission has always been to provide Indian children a route to their roots and inspire in them a great sense of pride about India and being Indian.”
“While we continue to keep our founder, Mr. Anant Pai’s dream alive by telling new stories and creating fresh content in print and digital formats, we are also keen on presenting our iconic stories in an animated avatar. For this, we could not have hoped for a better partner than Applause. We are confident that Sameer Nair and his team, with their passion and superlative track record, will do an amazing job adapting our stories to animation and providing the new and future generations of Indians a crucial link to our past,” she added.
