Anant Pai was a double graduate in chemical technology from Mumbai University. He worked with the Times of India in mid-1960s.He was with the Books Division which published Indrajal comics. He was spurred to create the mythological comics after watching a TV quiz show in which young participants answered quisions about Greek mythology with ease, but could not answer when asked about the name of Lord Rama’s mother.
Pai launched ACK series in 1967, with publisher G.L. Mirchandani, IBH. The first books were called Illustrated Classics. The name Amar Chitra Katha starts with number 11. It has sold more than 100 million copies of about 440 titles in 38 languages.
He led a band of loyal illustrators like Ram Wareekar, Dilip Kadam, Sanjeev Wareekar, Souren Roy, Pratap Malick, P. B. Kavadi, Yousuf Lien and Jeffery Fowler. He stayed at Shivalik Apartment, Prabhadevi, Mumbai.
He was given the first Annual Indian Indian Comic Convention ( Comi Con ) Life Time Achievement Award in February, 2011. He is survived by his wife Lalita. The Pais were childless.
To begin with Pai scripted his comics and used to get them scripted by Pradeep Pau and Yagya Sharma.
He sought the advice of Moti Chandra, the then curator of Prince of Wales Museum regarding costumes and architecture.
Govind Kotwani was employed to assist him. His team of Dennis Olivia, Subba Rao and Nira Benegal for Tinkle magazine too assisted him.
Kamla Chandrakant, a youn woman was employed to assist the scripting work. The other script writers included Gayatri Mada Dutt, Toni Patel, Rajendra Sanjay, Bharati Vyas, Debrani Mitra and Luis Fernandes.
The younger artists Vasant Halbe, Harishchandra Chavan, M V Nangare, G R Naik, Dilip Kadam and Pradeep Sathe joined the team.
The ACK comics were edited a number of times, and finally got okayed by Pai.
Though ACK comics were popular, they were at times politically incorrect. The heroes were always fair or blue-bodied. The villains of other communities were shown in bad light. Such prejudices do not take away the credit of good work done by Pai. After all, he was a product of his times.Othe comics elsewhere were also prejudiced. Tintin comics were showing Africans and Arabs in bad light. ( See Tintin in Tibet, Cigars of the Pharaoh ). Enid Blyton’s stories were accused of subtle racism, and were frowned upon in the UK.
While reissuing the ACK comics, the editors can make these comics free of the biases.The publication has been taken over by the Future Group of Kishor Biyani in 2011. The publication has recently featured eight legends posthumously. Among them are
- Jim Corbett
- Anant Pai who created Amar Chitra Katha
- Salim Ali, ornithologist
- Verghese Kurien, Amul man
- S Ramanujam, maths wizard
- M S Subbalakshami, classical singer
- Dhyan Chand, hockey legend
- Tenzing Norgay, first Everest conqueror
Amar Chitra Katha has more than 400 comics in over 20 languages and has so far sold 90 million copies. It proposes to do a volume on Sarav Ganguly, first living hero to feature in Amar Chitra Katha.
Lalitha Pai, 76 in 2015, widow of Anant Pai has launched a scholarship in memory of her husband. It is open to children in the age group of 10-15. The applicants will be judged on the basis of multiple-choice questions and an essay. The national winner will be getting a scholarship of Rs 11 lac. They will be choosing seven special metro winners and 71 city winners.