- Chandamama
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For other uses of "Chandamama", see Chandamama (disambiguation).
Chandamama Editor Prashant Mulekar Categories children Frequency monthly First issue 1947 Company Geodesic Information Systems Limited Country 
IndiaLanguage Assamese, Hindi, English, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi (as 'Chandoba') and Tamil Website [1] Chandamama is a popular Indian monthly magazine for children, famous for its illustrations. It was revamped in November 2008 and has since gone contemporary in terms of language, presentation, artwork, and content. While it continues to carry old favourites like Vikram-Betal and mythological tales, there have been several new additions including contemporary stories, adventure serials, sports, technology, news pages, etc. Considering the new trends in children's literature and the emerging importance given to academic study and analysis of the same, Chandamama has strived to keep its editorial policies in line with the times. As the oldest brand in the field, Chandamama has taken up the responsibility of delivering entertaining, sensitive, and educational literature for its young readers. Chandamama is published in 13 languages (including English), and has a readership of about 200,000.[1]
Contents
Unique style of storytelling
The magazine started the unique trend of telling a story, almost always bound by a common thread of moral values, with a grandparents' style of storytelling in the most flexible third-person narrative mode, on print.
The stories published have been drawn from numerous historical and modern texts in India, as well as from other countries. Mythology, epics, fables, parables and even useful hearsay were spun suitably to feed the impressionable minds so that they seek the right direction in life, even while entertaining them thoroughly. In fact Chandamama continues to be the perfect example for the now popular term 'edutainment' !
The stories embedded in the never-ending story of King Vikramāditya and Betala (Vampire), an adaptation of an ancient Sanskrit work Baital_Pachisi, brought wide repute to this magazine, and were also featured in popular TV serials. In each issue, the Vetala, in order to prevent him fulfill a vow, poses a typical catch-22 question to king Vikramāditya, involving a moral dilemma. The wise king answers correctly, and is thus defeated by the Vetala, forcing the king do it all over again, and again.
Chandamama also published long-running mythological/magical stories that ran for years.
History
The first edition of Chandamama was released in July, 1947. The founder editor of the magazine was B.Nagi Reddy who later became a leading film producer in South India. Chakrapani, a friend of Nagi Reddy, was the force behind magazine, and his vision, perception and understanding of the target readership brought name and fame to the magazine.
Chandamama was first published in Telugu and Tamil (as Ambulimama) in July 1947. Kannada edition first appeared in July 1949 followed by Hindi in August 1949. Marathi (as Chandoba) and Malayalam (as Ambili Ammavan) editions appeared in April 1952 followed by Gujarati in 1954, English in 1955, Oriya (as Jahnamamu) and Sindhi in 1956, Bengali in August 1972, Punjabi in 1975, Assamese in 1976, Sinhala in 1978, Sanskrit in April 1984 and Santali in 2004. The Punjabi, Sindhi and Sinhala editions were published only for a short period. No English editions were published from October 1957 to June 1970. The magazine ceased publication in 1998, owing to labour disputes. However, the magazine relaunched a year later and continues to be published to this day. It is available in 12 Indian languages and English.
For many decades, its illustrators Chitra, Vapa, Sankar (who joined Chandamama in the year 1951, and continues to draw even now in 2011, in an unbroken association of 6 decades!), and ShakthiDass defined the looks of Chandamama magazine. They used line drawings with style influenced by Indian, oriental, Middle eastern and European artistic traditions. Each page of Chandamama has an illustration, although in the strict sense of the term, Chandamama is not a comic book, with the exception of the Chitra-katha column.
Ownership
The magazine has been in family hands since foundation, and the current publisher, B Viswanatha Reddy, continues the tradition after taking over the affairs of the magazine from his father. In 1999, the company was floated as a public limited organization, with Morgan Stanley taking a sizable stake in the company.
The current editor is Prashant Mulekar of Geodesic.
In August 2006, it was reported[1][2] that Disney was set to buy a stake in Chandamama. In 2007, Chandamama was acquired[3] by technology company Geodesic Information Systems
Chandamama in the 21st Century
With the acquisition by a technology company, Chandamama has announced[4] that it will digitize and make available much of its content via digital libraries and on the web. In addition, Chandamama Multimedia CDs have also been published.
In late 2007, Chandamama released its revamped internet presence (now more logically found at chandamama.com, a domain-name it acquired after many years) to better cater to readers who demand information and content beyond the printed publication. It has also tied up with satellite radio service provider Worldspace to bring the Indian story telling tradition live through radio.[5]
In July 2008, the publication launched its online portal in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu apart from English. It declared that all 60 year's publication in all Indian languages would be put online soon.[6], [7]
References
- ^ a b Disney set to tell Chandamama stories
- ^ Now, catch Chandamama online
- ^ Geodesic to buy Chandamama for Rs 10 crore- Software-Infotech-The Economic Times
- ^ The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chandamama to digitise archived issues
- ^ Comics are serious business
- ^ Chandamama Tamil/Hindi sites launched
- ^ Archives are available at http://www.chandamama.com/archive/storyArchive.php
External links
Categories:- Indian comics titles
- Indian children's magazines
- Magazines established in 1947
- Hindi-language magazines
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