Ananda Vikatan
By the late 1920s, Vasan had begun to make considerable profits and one of the magazines he advertised in (almost dominated) was a local Tamil humor magazine with a circulation of about 2000. In 1928, he purchased this struggling Tamil humour magazine named Ananda Bodhini for Rs. 200. During this period, Vasan wrote a number of short stories for the Tamil magazines he brought advertisements for, with mixed success. He also translated popular English fiction and ran a successful mail order business.
Vasan renamed Ananda Bodhini as Ananda Vikatan and took over as Chief Editor. He completely revamped it by introducing serial stories and crossword puzzles. Vasan followed a rigorous marketing strategy which eventually saw the emergence of Ananda Vikatan as the best selling Tamil magazine of the time. with a readership touching 30,000 within a few months and growing to hundreds of thousands of readers in the following decades. In 1933, he started a humour magazine in English called The Merry Magazine and in 1934, a Tamil weekly called Naradhar devoted to arts, politics, literature and social issues, both of which were successful. In 1934, Ananda Vikatan became the first Tamil magazine to advertise in the British periodicals Advertiser's Review and Advertiser's Weekly. A key to Vasan's success was his ability to find and nurture talent and one of the biggest breaks came in the early 30's when Vasan found a new writer Kalki Krishnamurthy in whose writing he saw great potential. Kalki was living at the time with his family in Mayiladuthurai and Vasan without having met him in person unhesitatingly sent him money and tickets to move to Madras with his family and take up the role of the editor of his new magazine. Kalki and Vasan created history in the decade or so where they were professionally aligned and remained close friends for life. Another part of this successful team was Kalki Sadasivam who was a dynamic ad-man and was able to follow through Vasan's vision for marketing strategy. Sadasivam was also the legendary M.S. Subbulakshmi's husband. MS and Mrs Vasan were extremely close friends till the end of their days. Ananda Vikatan remained the foremost Tamil magazine without serious competition until 1941, when the editor Kalki Krishnamurthy and the dynamic marketing manager Kalki Sadasivam left the Ananda Vikatan to participate in the freedom struggle and hence got imprisoned. They then started the Kalki.
Ananda Vikatan, a part of the Vikatan group today continues to be one of the leading names in Tamil households and celebrates 87 years of publishing being the oldest vernacular magazine in the country. It now encompasses 9 magazines under its umbrella and has been the starting point of many major writers, artists and media personalities in South India.
Read more about this topic: S. S. Vasan