Anant Pai

Anant Pai is a well-known writer from India. He is a pioneer in Indian comics and an Indian educationalist. He was born on September 17, 1929, in Karkala in Karnataka, India. He is popularly known as Uncle Pai or Walt Disney Of India. He pursued his education at the Institute of Chemical Technology. He is famous for his work of Amar Chitra Katha. He was born to Venkataraya and Susheela Pai. Both of his parents passed away when he was 2 years old. He was taken care of by his maternal grandfather till his death in 1944. He pursued his schooling from Orient school located in Mahim. He was extremely passionate about comics since his early childhood days. He began his career as a junior executive at the Times Of India. He was married to Lalitha Pai in 1961. She passed away in 2011.

He published comic series like Mandrake and The Phantom. He was inspired by the Quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967 to take up comics as his career. He then later started his comic book called “Amar Chitra Katha .” The comic book aims at retelling the traditional Indian folk tales and biographies of famous historical people. His work was rejected by many publishers. He then took a decision to become the editor, writer, and publisher of his comic book. The book achieved great success and created a benchmark in the history of comic release. Over 86 million copies were sold.

He then started Tinkle in 1980. It is a children’s comic with short stories, educational articles, and jokes. Pai also launched Chimpu Comics, Ramu Shamu, Kapish, Little Raji, and Fact Fantasy. He then became the managing director of Rang Rekha Features till 2000. Apart from writing, he is also involved in personality development. He started the Partha Institute of Personality Development in 1978 for kids and teenagers. He achieved various accolades, including the Lifetime Achievement award, Karpoorchand Puraskar of Uttar Pradesh Bal Kalyan Sanshan in 1994, Yudhvir Memorial award in Hyderabad in 1996, Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy award in 1996, University of Bombay Department of chemical Technology Distinguished Alumnus award in 1999, Millennium Konkani Sammelan award in 2000, Priyadarshini Academy award in 2002, and The Vishwa Sarawat Sammaan award in 2003. Pai died of a heart attack at the age of 81 in February 2011 in Maharashtra, India.