Pran: Indian cartoonist who created Chacha Chaudhary dies

Pran was known as “India’s Walt Disney”, as Sanjoy Majumder reports 

The 76-year-old artist was the creator of the famous comic series Chacha (Uncle) Chaudhary, the wise old man who used his intelligence to outwit his enemies.

He created several other loveable characters who became hugely popular with children.

Pran died on Tuesday night after 10 days in hospital, his daughter-in-law Jyoti Pran told BBC Hindi.

“I wanted to create something that is Indian, that covers themes that are important and relevant to India,” Pran told the BBC in 2012.

Pran created the famous comic series Chacha (Uncle) Chaudhary (right), the wise old man who used his intelligence to outwit his enemies, and his sidekick Sabu (left)

“I started making comics in the 1960s but everyone was reading Western ones, I thought why not create an indigenous comic, based on local themes.”

Generations of Indian children grew up reading the exploits of Chacha Chaudhary and his sidekick, gentle giant Sabu who came from Jupiter and was shy around girls.

Pran kept his story lines simple and often wrote about cricket matches and Sabu eating 100 chapattis (Indian bread).

Last year, he drew a specially commissioned comic for BBC Hindi on Sabu’s adventures on the planet Mars.