Indian Mythology Industry – Third Incarnation
Last week, ACK media announced the acquisition of a popular Indian comic book brand Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle for $2.5 millon and is reportedly planning to invest $15-20 million in the next 3 years.
Samir Patil, founder investor and CEO of ACK Media told Hindustan Times: “It is a 100 per cent cash deal. We are looking to invest $15-20 million over the next two to three years to make use of opportunities in licensing content and characters, intensifying retail penetration and introduce more offerings in the digital medium.”Â
Smart move by ACK media, in acquiring the IP rights to popular Tinkle comic characters Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, Nasruddin Hodja, Kaalia the crow, Tantri the Matri, and the crew. I’m pretty sure the $20 million investment is largely towards digitizing these comic book characters into feature film releases.
The animation industry in India is heating up – Â opened up by the successful release of India’s first animation film Hanuman in 2005, and now followed by a sequel Hanuman returns, and a bunch of other big-budget and big-banner animation movies in the pipeline. With India being the most religious country in the world, most of the animation movies are based on Indian mythology characters India.Â
For the publishing and media companies, this is the third incarnation of the Indian mythology characters over the last 40 years – same stories, but packaged in a different format…
 1967: Anant Pai, the father of Indian comics, partners with India Book House to launch Amar Chitra Katha after contestants fail to answer questions on Indian mythology. If you, like me, grew up in early the 80′s, Amar Chitra Katha was the only source for Indian mythology characters besides, of course, your parents and grandparents.
1987: Then in the late 80s, Ramanand Sagar produced Ramayan, the first epic TV serial that ran for years. It was immensely successful and spawned a new industry of Indian epics made for TV – followed by Maharabhata, Krishna, and a few others.
2007: India’s first animation movie, Hanuman, is released in 2005 opening up the animation industry in India. And according to this IndiaFM article, bg names in Bollywood are falling over each other to hit the market with new animation movies based on mythology characters from popular characters like Hanuman and Krishna to little-known characters like Ghatothkach.
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