Two dinky little toys take their place by the side of Samir Patil, the 39-year-old CEO of ACK Media, at the company’s headquarters in in Mumbai. One is of Suppandi, a square-headed country bumpkin bustling with initiative for things that were bound to fail; the other is of Shikari Shambhu, a hunter whose jungle-time is spent running away from animals. The three-dimensional avatars of the two-dimensional characters from Tinkle comics are Patil’s frontline warriors in his bid to capture a bigger slice of the country’s growing ‘edu-tainment’ market.
Under Patil, ACK Media — owner of decades-old brands such as Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle and Karadi Tales — has scaled up its ambition. Comics will still be its core business, but there will now be a toy story, too. Fuelling this new venture is an investment by Elephant Capital, a private equity fund floated by Dabur group promoter Gaurav Burman that has acquired a 30 per cent stake in the Rs 75-crore business. ACK’s chief operating officer Ashish Goel says, “The target for this financial year is Rs 125-150 crore.”
Patil’s ambitions go much farther and higher: “I want to be the Walt Disney of India and create the largest family entertainment company. There are three places kids today go to — malls, schools and television. We will be there in all three.”
Full report here Hindustan Times
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