Get a copy of my cartoon book on demonetisation, Rupee or Not Rupee!

Rupee Or Not Rupee is a collection of my cartoons on demonetisation.
The 100-page all color book contains around 100 cartoons on different aspects of note ban.
You can buy your copy here

The Laxman, I never met!

My only interaction with RK Laxman happened via a letter. 

The cartoons of Laxman and Mario brought me into the cartooning world. As a school-going kid I used to re-draw/copy loads of Laxman’s cartoons which used to appear in The Illustrated Weekly.  Somehow I managed toget his address and mustered enough courage to send him a letter mentioning my passion for cartooning along with some cartoons. I was in 12^th class then.  I didn’t receive any response and I wasn’t expecting one too. But one day I got a letter from him (sent through his assistant I presume).  He wished me luck and like any elderly South Indian, asked me to focus on education first.

I followed his advice. I focused on my education. But I didn’t lose focus on cartooning too.

When I look back, I understand the actual meaning of his advice.
May be he meant good education (not just degrees) is a strong foundation for an editorial cartoonist.
If you don’t focus on education, you may end up weakening a strong part of your cartooning skills.

Just like crores of Indians,  I loved Laxman’s cartoons, be it his pocket cartoons or his editorial cartoons or the illustrations he used to do for his brother RK Narayan’s stories.  Each of his work is a lesson for any cartoonist who’s eager to learn.

I lived in Mumbai for almost two decades, but never had the courage to meet him, in spite of many opportunities. I was in awe of his works and in awe of Laxman, the person.  I had heard many stories of his ill-temper. And I was scared that he’ll refuse to acknowledge me as a cartoonist!

In 2003, few months after joining Mid-Day, I got a call from The Times of India. They were looking for artists. While I was entering  the TOI building opposite VT station, I suddenly realized that this is the place the God of cartooning worked for decades. And unknowingly I touched the threshold, just like we do while entering a temple.

After meeting the editors, I could see that they’re not very keen on promoting cartoons, but they were more interested in ‘graphics’! And they were amused when I told them that I want to be known as a cartoonist. During the meeting one senior journalist asked me ‘how do you work? Are you given subjects/ideas by the editorial team?’. That question really shocked me, coming from a senior journalist at a mewspaper where Laxman worked for ages! That question proved that though RK Laxman worked with TOI, he never worked with them. He was his own editor, his own newspaper!

Laxman gave cartoonists the editorial space at newspapers.  He earned respect from fellow journalists through his works. He was the most complete editorial cartoonist India has ever produced. His cartoons had the best ideas, the perfect drawing and a immaculate sense of humour.  A rare combination!

There was nobody like Laxman and there will be nobody like Laxman. It’s improper to compare cartoonists, because no two cartoonists are similar. Cartooning is not just about the illustrations. Cartooning is more about the minds that create cartoons. So, no two minds can be compared!

I don’t regret not meeting my Dronacharya, because he lives with me all the time till my last breath.
Goodbye, Sir!

Mid-Day article on my cartoon book.

Here's the link to buy my book 

My FIRST cartoon book!

Finally managed to publish my first cartoon book. And going with the flavour of the season, it's on politics with focus on elections 2014.

Since I'm self-publishing it, you can buy the book only through this link, as of now.
Hope you'll buy the book and enjoy the cartoons too.

Do let me know.
You can place your order here

Best of Satish Acharya in 2013!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKrCNSFl9Q

Food Security Bill isn't a free lunch!

Many cartoon-lovers regularly ask me about how a certain idea is born. Even cartoonists don't have answers to such questions. But I can share with you some ways I think of an idea. There are many ways to ideate.
-One way is getting spontaneous ideas and such ideas are beyond any explanation or reasoning. Here you read a certain news and a cartoon idea arrives in your head just like a flash.
Though such ideas arrive as a flash, I believe your regular following of news plays a vital role in such ideas.
-One more way is where you plan an idea. You pick a talking point of the day or you choose a subject which has been bothering you and work towards presenting your opinion in a cartoon. Here you need to spend more time on shaping your opinion on the subject. You need to think from different perspective, from different angle. Once you're convinced about your opinion, then follows a tougher part. To present that opinion in a creative way. This stage can drain you mentally.
I try my best to present the opinion in a different way(sometimes bizarre way), because many cartoonists think in a certain pattern and it's common for cartoonists' ideas to overlap. And because of the wild spread of the social media, lots of similar ideas are being circulated on the web, making a cartoonist's job tougher and risky. I have very bad experience in this regard, so I try to be extra careful to put a stamp that it's MY OWN IDEA.
-Another way of ideating is, through connecting two or more news items. These news subjects can be different, but you need a pick a common factor to connect them to come up with a punch. This is very effective way also, since most of the cartoon-lovers are keen followers of news. And such ideas can touch them easily.
-And also there must be hundred other ways of getting ideas, which cannot be put in any formula or method. A certain word in a newspaper/tv news report can trigger an idea. Certain visual may lead you to an idea. A particular personality or his/her mannerism can inspire you. It's a complex process, which can be simplified by the amount of news you read/follow and your unbiased opinion. When you're biased you restrict your ideas and miss many golden opportunities. Similarly when you spend less time on following news, you're missing out on many ingredients which could make your ideas more powerful/colorful.

In this cartoon, my idea was triggered by Supreme Court's observation on election freebies. But the background was certainly Food Security Bill, which the govt was desperately trying to implement, to gain some electoral brownie points. First my idea was to show only MMS, the court and the poor family, where MMS tells the court "This was an older order". But I wasn't convinced and felt the need for a stronger punch. Some more pushing helped me come up with an idea about how the govt would try to convince us that it's not a 'freebie'

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2012!

THANK YOU, MEDIA!

Really overwhelmed with the support I received from people on facebook, twitter and bloggers, regarding Sharad Pawar cartoon. They made sure that the cartoon reached maximum number of readers, by sharing on fb wall, tweeting/retweeting it, sending via emails and posting on blogs. This spontaneous response also helped some publications and websites to take note of the incident and report on it. Here are some of the articles which supported cartoonist's freedom. Thank you!

How a cartoon is born?

If there's one formula to create a cartoon, then we would have ended up seeing similar cartoons from all the cartoonists. Luckily each cartoonist has an individual process to come up with ideas/cartoons. Some get ideas in solitude, some other cartoonists can think only in a chaos.


I'm sharing here a cartoon which was created from nowhere. I began with doing a lazy doodle, but a series of thoughts took me to a cartoon idea. Hope you'll enjoy this process and hopefully it will help some beginners.

My cartoon on Japan in BBC's The World cartoon slideshow.

One of my cartoons in BBC's The World Global Political Cartoons slideshow.

Now you can use my cartoons...

Get regular cartoons from Satish Acharya's cartoon syndicate for your publication/website/tv channel!
Drop a mail to cartoonistsatish@gmail.com
to get more details

Uncle who remained a child!

Most of us live and very few live forever.
Anant Pai, the creator of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle will remain as a part of our childhood forever.
Amar Chitra Katha brought into our life all those lively characters from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchatantra and from the history. They are so strongly embedded in our childhood memory that we don't even remember the faces that portrayed those characters on TV Ramayana-Mahabharata.
I had a chance to meet Uncle Pai in around 1995-96 when I freelanced for Tinkle for a short period. The man was full of life and ideas and the busiest. All he could tell me was, follow your dreams.
He was child-like, Pai, who had no child, considered crores of Tinkle readers as his children and he always created occasions to meet more kids.

We all dream to remain a kid all our life, but Uncle Pai was the luckiest, this uncle remained a child all his life.
RIP Uncle!

Know more about me! :-)

My interview at Blogadda

Gadkari with my CWG cartoons!

BJP President Nitin Gadkari enjoying two of my cartoons on CWG scam, during an exhibition at BJP National Executive Meeting in Guwahati. Pic courtesy: PTI

Obama's WikiLeaks cartoon in BBC's TheWorld global cartoon slideshow!

My cartoon on Obama's WikiLeaks nightmare appeared in BBC's The World global cartoon slideshow.
Here's the link

2010 in Cartoons! Midday special

2010 in Cartoons
Midday special

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Wishing everyone a joyful Christmas and a wonderful 2011

My cartoon on BBC's THE WORLD home page.

My Santa Claus cartoon on BBC's THE WORLD home page.

Why did I shift from Mumbai to Kundapur...

Why do people shift from the city of dreams, Mumbai to smaller towns? The answer is this article. Hindustan Times covered few professionals and I'm one of them.
I'm sure there are thousands of professionals who relocate from Mumbai to smaller cities in search of LIFE!
Here's the link to the article

Dialogue Maaro Contest-2 winners!

I'm confident, there’s a cartoonist lurking in each of you, who’s witty, who has a sharp sense of humour and who’s well-informed. All you need is the ability to draw. 

That’s what I felt after going through your entries.

Just one word, fabulous!

Congratulations to winners and big thanks to all the participants.

Waleed Hussain, Deputy News Editor at Mid Day and a very good friend of mine agreed to judge the entries at a very short notice and did a wonderful job. I’m not going to thank him, he would rather get a treat from me, when I visit Mumbai next time.

Here are the winners according to Waleed, along with a short note from him about the cartoon and entries. 

Winner#1 Siddharth Saudagar
“May I book your ticket to America by Garib Rath?”

Winner#2 Vijay Kumar
“Obamaji jaane se pehle hamara Rabdi se bhi milkejaanaa...woh tho shakal se tumhara behan jaisi hai…”

Winner#3 Premi Grewal
“Yeh lo kuch kha lena ........ Hamm to chare ke

shokin hain ..”

Winner#4 Manjesh Reddy
“Here is my 2 cents Obamaji...

Join RJD - "We believe in change too!"

Waleed Hussaid says…
The cartoon brings forth two of the most well-known politicalfigures in contemporary politics. India's rustic in-your-faceLaloo Prasad Yadav offers the smart and charismatic US prez BarackObama some valuable advice of how to stay in power. The timing of thecartoon is perfect as Obama has just lost a major vote back home whilehe was on tour to India in a last ditch effort to save the US economy.He can take a few lessons from Laloo, who single-handedly turned theRailways fortune on its head, making it a profit-making venture fromits loss-making debacles.

PS: Winners please select a cartoon from my album or blog and inform me with your mailing address.

Will get a digital print and send you signing it.