Chitrakatha : Indian Comics Beyond Balloons & Panels

Chitrakatha 10 Minutes Rough Preview Cut

2011-09-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This was a rough line up, kind of an internal test footage that we thought we should share with you all. Hope you gonna like it, let us know how did you like this:

Chitrakatha in FHM India's July 2011 Issue

2011-07-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

click on the image to read:

Chitrakatha Teasers

2011-03-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

Chitrakatha is slowly inching towards its next stage of production, and here we present a couple of teasers before launching our first ten minutes preview:

RIP Uncle Pai

2011-03-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

Uncle Pai left us for heavenly abode, but he will always remain with us with his blessings in the form of Amar Chitra Katha. We contributed an excerpt from his Chitrakatha Interview, we shot on 30th July 2009 with Mint Lounge*.

Click on the image to read the interview, or click here to read it on Live Mint website.

*The article has some factual errors (Chitrakatha visited him in his office not home) and some translation errors (Lines like "In it, I used to poke fun at India’s education system." He actually said I was making education fun, he never poked fun at it).

Chitrakatha in The New Indian Express

2010-11-15T02:19:00.000-08:00

Click on the image to read

Chitrakatha in Man's World August 2010

2010-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Click on the image to read the complete article

Frank Frazetta Homage Day-08

2010-07-01T02:35:00.000-07:00

Neeraj Menon's powerful rendition of Frazetta's Death Dealer

Frank Frazetta Homage Day - 7

2010-06-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Art by Arjun Gupte

Frazetta Homage Day - 06

2010-06-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Lovely Homage piece by Vijayakumar Arumugam

Frazetta Homage Day - 5

2010-06-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

A Frazetta Story: A comic-strip homage by Chitrakatha's young brigade - Swapnil Singh (Artist) & Soumya Das (Writer)
Click on the image to read the comic strip in full size.

Open publication - Free publishing - More toonfactory

Frank Frazetta Homage Day -4

2010-06-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

Pc Vikram's brilliant Conan Pinup for Frazetta Homage.

Frank Frazetta Homage - Day 3

2010-06-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Centurion by Avik Kumar Maitra

Frank Frazetta Homage Day -2

2010-06-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

A power packed rendition of Conan by the very talented Abhishek Singh

Click on the image for bigger size.

Frank Frazetta Homage - 1

2010-06-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)

Frank Frazetta, the master of Fantasy Art expired last month. His powerful renditions of Conan the Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, voluptuous female figures, creatures and beasts have inspired and will continue inspiring generations of artists.

Project Chitrakatha, planned a Frazetta homage, on the day the sad news of his demise came. Indian Artists from all over sent some brilliant homage art for the late maestro who's art was an influence and an early guiding light to most of these artists.

We were getting a lot of art from Frazetta Fans all over, but still had to wait until all the art pieces were received, which kept delaying the homage. Finally we have got all the artworks and its time, we can start our Frazetta Homage.

This amazing digital painting was sent by Bala Rajasekar, a brilliant artist and director from Big Animation, Pune.

Updates: May 2010

2010-05-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not being able to update this place for sometime, but here we are.

Last month saw Chitrakatha getting featured on Passion For Cinema's Indie Wednesdays. If you haven't read it already, click here to read the article which became one of the top 5 most read and commented articles on the website within a day.

We are just back from a 10 days long shooting schedule from a small town in Central India. Have real fond memories of spending my childhood and summer holidays surrounded with all kind of comic books here.

Got some real old, classic comic books in mint condition (some of them were from my own library, as they still had my rubber stamps on them). It was one superb trip down memory lane.

Shooting with kids is always a fun, and these kids were really brilliant considering their no camera experience. We shot in schools, narrow lanes of this village and above all one of the last 'living' comic book lending libraries in India.

Will be sharing the pics and podcasts soon on our Facebook page as well as here.

Coming Soon:

Podcasts from our journey and shoots.

One amazing e-interview with the very talented Indian Comic Book Artist Manu.

And one super cool competition.

Keep watching this space for more updates.

Nostalgia, ecstasy and a lot more...

2010-04-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

Somebody very aptly said "Comic Books aren't child's play". It's been almost a year we have been living with a dream called Chitrakatha. I can't remember a single moment or a single chat when we haven't discussed Chitrakatha. But like all the projects, this one has a destiny of its own and we are just fulfilling its destiny.

Meeting the true superheroes who created this world to colour our otherwise monotonous childhood afternoons is an added bonus. And to see them smile at the mention of a certain story (or sometimes a certain panel) is an experience in itself.

Is it just a nostalgia? I beg to differ...because whenever we speak about the project, we see people getting ecstatic about those (now obscure and outdated) characters and comic magazines which fueled their imagination, help them escape from the mundane reality. Wasn't that a parallel life we all have enjoyed living until a few years back? Can we shrug it off just as sheer nostalgia?

Let's debate over it sometime.

Nevertheless, here's our 1st Podcast which was released on our Facebook Page last month, this is first in a series of a lot more podcasts we are planning to release in regular intervals as we keep working on Chitrakatha.

Chitrakatha wishes you all a very Happy Holi!

2010-02-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

A very rare Cartoonist Pran Cover for Magazine Lotpot from early 1970s (Image Courtesy: Zahir Bhai)

Team Chitrakatha wishes you all a very happy and colorful Holi.

Wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

2009-12-31T23:26:00.001-08:00

इस नव-वर्ष आपका दिमाग कंप्यूटर से भी तेज़ चले,
अपनी विषफुंकार से आप बुराइयों को नेस्तनाबूद करें और अपनी गुर्राहट के साथ मानवता से वफादारी निभाएं,
नव वर्ष पर चित्रकथा की ओर से यही हैं हमारी शुभकामनायें!

The Sketch Karna Contest (A Chitrakatha & Vimanika Joint Initiative)

2009-12-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

Heya Guys,

Chitrakatha and Vimanika Comics proudly announce our 1st ever (online) Sketching Contest: THE SKETCH KARNA CONTEST

For more details, log on to Vimanika's Contest Page here.

Vimanika Comics and Chitrakatha Documentary Project in association with Animation Xpress brings you a once in lifetime chance to create your own vision of Vimanika’s Karna and win a super exclusive Karna Statue created specially for the winner of the contest. Become a part of the legend itself by drawing your cool version of India’s own Superhero and send it to us. Winning entries will be published in future issues of Vimanika Comics and if we liked your drawings you can also win some awesome Vimanika gift hampers.

We will accept entries with a background.

Rules: Your entries should be in color, resolution: 300 DPI and maximum of 5 MB in size. A participant can send as many entries as he/she wants. Do not forget to mention Your Name, Age, Contact No., Email and Postal Address along with your masterpiece. Contest Kick starts on Dec 18th, last day of submission is Jan 15th, 2010 So what are you waiting for, pick up your tools and create your own version of Vimanika’s Karna the legendary warrior of all time!

Chitrakatha: The online journey begins

2009-10-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

We have been working on Chitrakatha's online presence for sometime, although half cooked we think chitrakathaonline.com can be presented to you guys for suggestions and feedback.

It has been a wonderful experience so far, working on this documentary and meeting so many wonderful people from all over. The love and support which we've been getting is overwhelming and that also means there are really high expectations we have to meet.

Do let us know what would you like to see on these pages and we will try to fulfill your requests.

And Yes! there are a lot of surprises too! So join us in the fun we are having working on Chitrakatha.

-Team Chitrakatha