The Complicated Nostalgia of Amar Chitra Katha

It was 1967 and Anant Pai was watching Doordarshan, a state-sponsored TV channel on a visit to Delhi. His delight quickly turned to consternation, when a children’s quiz show contestant couldn’t answer what seemed to him like a simple question: Who is Ram’s mother?

The publisher from Bombay had a profound realization. “They could answer every question about Greek mythology…But in Delhi, mind you, where every year…for 10 long days they enact scenes from the Ramayana, the youngster couldn’t answer the question,” he said. So Pai got to work, launching a comic franchise, Amar Chitra Katha, that has since become a household name. The brand has returned to the spotlight after an October fire destroyed over 200 original hand-drawn illustrations. But in an era with plenty of film and book retellings of Indian mythology, how does one comic book company continue to sell 4.5 million copies a year? And does it still have a place in today’s world of infinite options?