In early 2004, when the 500th issue of the popular children’s comic Tinkle was released, its creator Anant Pai – fondly called Uncle Pai – gazed back over the magazine’s journey and stressed the need for keeping up with new developments.
After over a decade post the special edition (and four years after the demise of Uncle Pai), Tinkle is staying true to the vision of its founding member, and moving ahead with the times. From its May 2015 issue onwards, Tinkle will be India’s first augmented reality enhanced magazine for children. Its young subscribers will now be able to not only read the adventures of their favourite characters like Suppandi, but also “click selfies” with him, access games and bonus material and a whole lot more. The “new and improved” Tinkle is the result of a collaboration between publishers Amar Chitra Katha and Blippar India.
Amar Chitra Katha has associated with Blippar India, a leading visual browser, for their kid’s magazine ‘Tinkle’, making it India’s first augmented reality enhanced magazine for children. The partnership with Blippar will pave the way for making ‘Tinkle’ a 360-degree magazine, which will bring together the best that both print and digital have to offer.
Commenting on the development, Amar Chitra Katha, CEO – Publishing, Manas Mohan stated: “We believe that our readership (8-14 year olds) in this country is the future of editorial consumption. As the youth in our country become more tech-savvy, we have embarked on the mission to adapt our content to cater to our present readership and attract new audiences. We are extremely happy to announce the achievement of one critical milestone in our journey to digitisation – our partnership with Blippar, the world’s leading mobile augmented reality and image recognition platform, to produce India’s first augmented reality print magazine for children.”
On the association, Blippar India, regional director, Arnav Ghosh added, “We are delighted to collaborate with Amar Chitra Katha and introduce India’s first interactive comic for children. Blippar allows the book to be interactive and helps it connect with the children by marrying the real and virtual world. With this engagement, we aim to drive an innovative perspective for comic books in India and help inculcate reading habits amongst the young and bright minds.”
