Ananda Vikatan

Ananda Vikatan was started by Budalur Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not published due to financial difficulties. In January 1928 S. S. Vasan bought the rights from Vaidyanadhaiyer and relaunched the publication from February 1928 in a new format[2] He paid ₹200 (US$2.80) at the rate of ₹25 per alphabet in the Tamil language name (ஆனந்த விகடன்) of the publication to buy the rights.[3] He built it up into a weekly and sales soon rose. Ananda Vikatan is still running successfully after ninety years. Veteran journalist and media personality S. Balasubramanian served as editor, managing director and publisher of the magazine for nearly 50 years till 2006.[4] Balasubramanian also mentored generations of journalists and writers. He also started the "Manavar Thittam" or student journalism scheme that is active for the last 30 years and counting. He also launched Junior Vikatan, a biweekly Tamil investigative journal in the 1980s in addition to his many accomplishments as Vikatan's publisher. He was the son of S. S. Vasan and continues to be Chairman Emeritus of the group after handing over the reins to his son B. Srinivasan.

Vikatan has now evolved as Vikatan group in the Tamil Nadu magazine industry. Vikatan over the years has provided the opportunity for many great Tamil writers such as Kalki Krishnamurthy, Devan, Sujatha Rangarajan, Gnani Sankaran, Madhan, and RK Shanmugam. Cartoons and illustration also flourished, producing work from artists Maya, 'Mali' Mahalingam, Madhan, Sridhar, Silpi, Thanu and Gopulu.

Currently Rajumurugan, Peyon, S.Ramakrishnan and Jeyamohan are some of the notable contributors to Vikatan.

It is part of Vasan Publications, the Vikatan magazine group, which also publishes

Vikatan Televistas was launched by Vasan Publications in the late 1990s starting with Mega-serials on Sun TV.[5]

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, for the period of July–December 2004, circulation stood at 4,30,534 per week. This represents a 22 per cent growth over the previous half-year period..

• Official Website
• J-POD: B. Srinivasan of Ananda Vikatan, podcast on Krishna Prasad's jpod