CHANDAMAMA - The inside story

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.

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