MUMBAI, NOV 13: The man in the moon who has been spinning tales for children since 1947 is back. Chandamama, the children's magazine that disappeared from newsstands in October 1998 is being relaunched in a new avatar to keep step in a globalised entertainment world where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles compete with Shaktimaans for a child's fancy.The December issue of Chandamama will hit newsstands by the end of November in all the 12 languages it was being published in, including English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Oriya and Assamese. To reboot their fortunes, Chandamama's publishers, the Chennai-based Reddys, have set up a new company, Chandamama India Ltd (CIL), in which they have the majority stake of 40 per cent. The rest of the stake is split up between investment bankers J M Morgan Stanley, Karvy Consultants, Tata Finance and Housing Finance Development Corporation. When labour unrest in the printing unit stopped presses at Chandamama last October, the languageeditions had a total circulation of about 500,000. The best selling were the Oriya, Hindi, Bengali and Telugu editions, informed B Viswanatha Reddy, who has been editing the magazine for the last 30 years."Chandamama's founders, B Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani, were involved with the freedom movement and felt the need to inspire children of the sub-continent to imbibe the heritage of the country. They founded Chandamama in July 1947 with a vision to serve independent India,'' said Reddy in a faxed message.Since then, the magazine's trademark USP has been an illustrated colour cover, folk tales from India and abroad and quizzes, profiles and science and ecology tid-bits. The magazine was even available in Gurmukhi and Sinhalese, but the editions were suspended in 1981 and 1987 respectively due to ethnic unrest. A Braille edition in four languages were added on in 1980 for free distribution among the blind and in 1984, a Sanskrit edition.The intervening idle period has forced a rethink in content. "Wefelt the need for a formal relaunching of Chandamama with some improvements both in presentation and production, at the same time keeping the content value intact," said V Madhusudhan, director, marketing. "Many have tried the concept, but at the heart of Chandamama is something that nobody could touch. It's not just a storybook, but has character and instills human values. It's been a read-along for children for generations," he added.But sources were tight-lipped over what the new Chandamama would look like, apart from assuring that it would not change face completely. All Madhusudhan would reveal was: "We are introducing subtle changes to make the magazine contemporary. But these changes will not mean that Chandamama will lose its brand appeal. It will have a more pleasant feel in terms of quality of paper and colour illustrations. But we will not lose our Oriental appeal." New features will also be added on from January 2000.Uttam Kumar, who has worked in animation in the US for a decade and isfounder-director of the Hyderabad-based Uttam Brothers Creations Pvt Limited, is associated with the design makeover. "We will follow the original and give an almost new look, keeping the reader's comfort in view. We also intend to continue having the same vibrant and happy colours on covers," said Kumar. Design changes apart, the company, Walt Disney style, also plans to enter the media and entertainment business by producing animation series, interactive games, comics, activity books, merchandising and the Internet. Schools will also be an important direct marketing avenue tapped by the company to peddle Chandamama.
