DHAKA: Cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, the man who created the famous Indian comic character Chacha Chaudhary died on Wednesday. 

His others famous characters included cartoons like Sabu, Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman, Channie Chachi and many more.

Pran succumbed to cancer early on Wednesday morning at a hospital in Gurgaon, according to his publisher Diamond Comics. He was 75.

"Pran passed away at 9 AM at the Medanta hospital. He had been suffering from cancer of the intestine for the past eight months. He is survived by a son and a daughter," Gulshan Rai, Publisher, Diamond Comics, said.

Other of his famous characters include 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. In 1969, he sketched Chacha Chaudhary for the Hindi magazine Lotpot, which made him famous.

"Art has visual, no words. Literature has words, no visual. Comics have words as well as visuals. This accounts for its popularity," said the well known cartoonist who remained a craze among young children with his comic characters.

He received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 from Indian Institute of Cartoonists. He was also included in People of the year 1995 by Limca Book of Records for popularizing comics in India.

Source: ibnlive.in.com

BDST: 1545 HRS, AUG 06, 2014