Lifetime Achievement Award For Cartoonist Pran

Do you know Chacha Chaudhary's brain works faster then computer ? and the tall muscular Sabu is the inhabitant of planet Jupiter ? On 9 June 2001, Mr. S. M. Krishna, chief minister of Karnataka honored cartoonist Pran, the creator of Chacha Chaudhary comic series for lifetime achievement award on behalf of Indian institute of cartoonists. The citation says: making people laugh through cartoons is serious business , but Pran has been at it for decades, sustaining with vigor and humor unfailingly. His extremely lovable comics with exaggerated curves but real lives and a subtle social message have rendered him a genius in the colorful cartoon spectrum of modern India. So much that he is today a cornerstone in the arena of cartoon journalism . for unshackling caricature from the re aims of elitism and popularizing this sophisticated art from among the masses.

There was a time when all comics in India were imported from western countries. Young Pran thought of making Indian comics having our own characters and based own local themes. Thus 41 years ago he created Chacha Chaudhary who was a completely different character from the western concept of the heroes of Superman , Spiderman, Batman or Phantom. Chacha Chaudhary was short statured and old but endowed with sharp intellect and wit . He solves the problems with his common sense but with a touch of humor . as the time went on, the problems of our country also changed . with bomb blasts, terrorism , scandals high jacking etc. Thus cartoonist Pran added Sabu- a tall robust man from planet Jupiter , who is a constant companion of Chacha Chaudhary . now brain and muscular strength combined can solve any problem of the world.

In 1968, cartoonist Pran created Shrimatiji, a middle class housewife, having a white collar husband and two school going kids. This middle class family handled the problems of rising prices, social norms and school admissions. This with wit humour was followed by other characters like Pinki, Billoo, Raman etc. the cartoonist's strips run regularly in over 30 Indian language newspapers and so far he was published more than 400 comic books in 6 languages. More than one crore readers enjoy these comics regularly . these characters will now be further popularized through animation and other media as well.