“The festivities have just begun,” exclaims Savio Mascarenhas. The group art director of Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) Private Ltd is gearing up for the 40th special birthday celebrations of Tinkle.
Sharing the news ahead of coming to participate in the Children’s Art Fest 2020 in the city, Savio says. “From this January, each issue of Tinkle will have an activity and a single piece of jigsaw puzzle. Readers have to collect the pieces, complete the jigsaw picture and send it to us by November, when we have the final celebrations. A line-up of new activities will follow,” he says. For instance In ‘Spot the 40’ activity, readers have to spot the number 40 on Tinkle’s cover page.
Having begun his career as a copy writer in advertising, Savio joined Tinkle as an illustrator and then became an art director. “It has been a fantastic journey; this is my 26th year here, ” he smiles.
Tinkle’s YouTube videos are in sync with the changing times. He says, “Ever since we launched the channels last year, they have become popular.” In the 40-second animated video, Savio teaches basics of drawing. Be it the fun-loving Shikari Shambu or the village simpleton Suppandi - making of these comic characters get a digital display.
From creating Mopes and Purr, a dog-cat detective duo, to Shambhu and Suppandi, Savio has a come a long way. The huge demand for Suppandi stories encouraged Savio to create Suppandi 48, a magazine for comic lovers. “We created another character Super Suppandi, which existed in Suppandi’s mind.” It is a challenge and pressure to satisfy their loyal readers. “Characters and storyline evolve and change based on feedback . One such character created was Dental Diaries and the comedy horror segment.”
He admits that growing is tougher and it’s challenging to bring children closer to books as they get distracted by the digital world. “We try our best to be contemporary and today’s kids want stories with mysteries and adventures. There has been a fall in reader numbers as their time is now taken up with devices. But our storytelling sessions and workshops help us to increase our readership.” Savio keeps coming to Hyderabad to participate in session at ACK Learning Centre in Jubilee Hills.
He however shares that ACK does not want to go the digital way as they want children to buy books to read. “During our interactions with parents and teachers, we extol the joys of holding a book and reading. Many parents believe reading from a book is a necessity and if they do not want to give their child a device, the word of caution has to come from them.”
