New Delhi: One of India's most successful cartoonists Pran Kumar Sharma passed away on Wednesday. Pran was the man behind the famous comic series 'Chacha Chaudhury'. His others famous characters included cartoons like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman, Channie Chachi and many more.
He was born on August 15, 1938 in a small town Kasur, now in Pakistan. The family moved to Gwalior after partition of the country. He graduated with a Master of Arts (Political Science) degree and then completed a four-year course in Fine Arts from Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai.
Pran began his career in 1960 as a cartoonist for the Delhi-based newspaper Milap with comic strip Daabu and Professor Adhikari.
The legendary cartoonist created one of the most popular Indian comic book character ‘Chacha Chaudhary'. In was in 1971, when Pran shaped the character of ‘Chacha Chaudhary' -- a middle aged man whose mind worked faster than a computer. The comic comes in ten languages and has sold almost ten million copies.
Pran published over 400 comic books comprising more than two lakhs drawings. His name was included in the People of the year,1995, by Limca Book of Records for popularizing comics in India. He won the Thitholi award in 1982 and Rajdhani Ratan award in 1997.
He also has the credit of carrying his comic strips in 30 newspapers across India.
He was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Fourth Annual Comic Con India Awards this year.
Pran's son Nikhil had in 1997 started the Pran's Media Institute in Noida.
