 The
story of our childhood hero Vikramadhityan and those enchanting
tales from Mahabharatham and Ramayanam made Chandamama
the most preferred magazine for children for over five decades.
The publication established in 1947, was the dream of film pioneer
B. Nagi Reddi and the late Chakrapani. The freedom movement
brought them together. Realising that the seeds of nationalism were
better sown among the younger generation, they decided to publish
a magazine exclusively for children. This was to help them imbibe
the best of human values, by telling them stories culled from India's
legends, mythology, history and folklore.
 Chandamama
came out one month before the country gained freedom (July 1947),
in Telugu and Tamil (Ambulimama), and was received with great
delight by the young and old alike. As the two editions rolled out
month after month, Chandamama became a household name.
With children from other languages, clamouring for the magazine in
their own tongue, the editions were translated. Chandamama in Kannada
and Hindi came out in 1948 and 1949, Chandoba (Marathi) and
Ambili Ammavan (Malayalam) in 1952, followed by Chandamama
in Gujarathi (1954), English (1955), Oriya (1956), Bengali (1972),
Sindhi (1975) and Assamese (1976). The first foreign language edition,
Ambilimama, was published in 1978 in Sinhala for the children
of Sri Lanka. The then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka was
so attracted by the magazine that he offered to contribute stories,
which he did for the next few months.
 An
edition in Sanskrit was brought out in 1979, while a Braille
edition in four languages was released in 1980. The magazine now comes
out in 12 languages.
Chandamama, which was the most preferred comic for children for 52
years, had to be suspended for 20 months because of unavoidable reasons.
It has now been relaunched in all 12 languages under the banner Chandamama
India Limited.
After the demise of Chakrapani, the mantle of editorship fell on B.Viswanatha
Reddi, the third son of Nagi Reddi. He is now the Managing
Editor and Publisher of the magazine.
Author: S. Natarajan |
