Chandamama

Chandamama was conceptualised by legendary filmmakers B. Nagi Reddi and his friend Chakrapani. Their reason for launching Chandamama was to familiarise the post-Independence generation with Indian tradition, folklore, mythology and history in the form of stories.
Chandamama has recently been acquired by the Mumbay-based Geodesic. Incorporated in 1999, Geodesic is a publicly traded company with offices in the US , UK , Sweden and Hong Kong . The company has developed the popular universal instant messaging system Mundu (http://www.mundu.com/). Recently the company was awarded the Red Herring Small Cap 100 award – the only Indian company to be included in the Red Herring Small Cap 100 list.
Apart from a highly successful print edition and a rapidly developing online portal (http://www.chandamama.com/), Chandamama is also foraying into films and video production with its bank of over 15,000 exclusive stories. Interactive books and CDs are also part of Chandamama's efforts to reach out, educate and entertain today's young minds. Readers of Chandamama Tamil, Telugu and Hindi can now find their favourite stories in their language at www.chandamama.com/tamil, www.chandamama.com/telugu and www.chandamama.com/hindi. The sites contain a mix of popular Chandamama stories from mythology, historical, comical to contemporary. This takes the number of languages on the website to four including English.
Chandamama.com has also put a part of its 60 year archive online. Currently early editions of Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu can be found on the site. The other languages, as well as all 60 years back issues will go live soon.

Govind Nihalani too starts a new Animation Film

The director talks about his animation film Kamlu with Shilpa Jamkhandikar
After almost four years, one of India’s most acclaimed film-makers is back, but don’t expect another Ardh Satya or a Dhrohkaal from firebrand director Govind Nihalani. This time round, his focus of attention is Kamlu, a baby camel, the protagonist of his new animation film.
“I have always wanted to do animation, but earlier the budgets and the technology were a constraint. Now, however, we have so many facilities at our calling that this was the time for me to jump into animation,” Nihalani says.
Kamlu, which is about a baby camel who gets lost in the desert and finds new friends in the process, is currently being given shape in an animation studio in Chennai. Nihalani says the process has been a learning experience for him. “After my 2004 release Dev, I took a break, and worked on my animation project, because I knew it would take a lot of time. I do have a few actors in mind for the films, but everything is still in its primary stages,” he adds. Things, he says have changed considerably in the last three years. (Courtsy DNAIndia)

Chandamama then and now

On completing 60 years, Publisher and MD Vishwanath Reddi shares the journey of Chandamama Pvt Ltd. for our readers…Early years…Chandamama was the brainchild of two visionaries of Madras (now Chennai)—Mr. B Nagi Reddi, who later became a leading film producer in South India and who promoted the largest film studio in Asia, and Mr. Chakrapani, a litterateur in Telugu, Hindi and Bengali.They were volunteers in India‘s freedom movement and were anxious about the children of the country who, they found, had all along been denied much knowledge of their motherland—its heritage, hoary past, traditions and culture. They realised that the best vehicle to take children closer to these aspects of India would be through a magazine and to impart information through stories narrated in a simple spoken language supplemented by illustrations. In the ‘30s and ‘40s, there were no magazines for children; even most of the books available were of no literary value.The two friends launched Chandamama in July 1947 – first in Telugu language, followed by an edition in Tamil in the same month. When the two magazines began rolling out month after month, demands soon rose for editions in other languages.
Mile stones…It is a universally accepted fact that India is a land of stories. However, till Chandamama appeared in the print media as a colorful, multilingual story magazine, many of those stories had remained beyond the reach of children. Chandamama can boldly claim itself, perhaps, as the key player in promoting children‘s literature with a multi-layer national spirit. By promoting the use of spoken language without hurting the literary flavor of many a language in India, Chandamama had played a pioneering role in taking children closer to their mother-tongue and cultural heritage.
Mr. B Nagi Reddi’s words….Our nation, too, celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of Independence this year, and it is indeed sad to observe its apathy towards children. Whether it is children‘s literature, children‘s theatre, children‘s films or children‘s welfare, they come next only to all other programmes and priorities. The concept woven round the magazine has been preserved intact all these 60 years.