Mumbai Film and Comic Con

Among the countries most taken by comic con fever is India. A lengthy email offering pr on this year’s Mumbai Film and Comic Con 2014, taking place at the Bombay Exhibition Centre from 19th December-21st December arrived in my mail box. Among the facts revealed: Guests include Nick Spencer, Nicolas Wild and Dan Goldman. She show will offer a 50,000 sq feet show floor and 100 exhibitors, including Amar Chitra Katha, Orange Radius, Pop Culture Publishing, Holy Cow Entertainment, Crimzon Studios, Simon and Schuster India, HarperCollins Publishers, Aayumi Productions, Shamik Dasgupta, Jazyl Homavazir, Pepper Script and Raj Comics.

If you’re wondering how Indian cons stack up with US shows, the email included the following figures. I don’t know if these are verified, but they do present a narrative of steady growth:

1.  At the 1st Comic Con India in Feb’11 in New Delhi, the turnout was approx. 20000 and Sales touched 25 Lakhs in 2 days.
2.  At the Comic Con Express Mumbai, the travelling version of Annual Indian Comics  Convention that took place in October ’11, the turnout was approx 12000 and Sales touched 30 Lakhs in 2 days.
3. At the 2nd Comic Con India that took place in Feb’12 in New Delhi, the response was amazing, footfall touched 35 thousand and sales touched 50 lakhs in 3 days.
4. At the Comic Con Express Bangalore, the travelling version of Annual Indian Comics Convention in that took place in Sept ‘12, the turnout was approx 35000 and the sales crossed over 65 Lakhs in 2 days.
5.  At the 1st ever “Mumbai Film and Comic Con” that took place last year in Mumbai in Oct‘12, the turnout was approx 26000 and the sales crossed over 45 Lakhs in 2 days.
6. At the 3rd Comic Con India that took place in Feb’13 in New Delhi, the response was tremendous, footfall touched 50 thousand and sales touched crore in 3 days.
7. At the 1st ever annual “Bangalore Comic Con” that took place in Bangalore in June’ 13, the turnout was approx 62000 and the sales touched 1 crore 25 Lakhs in 2 days.
8. At the First Ever Comic Con Express Hyderabad, the travelling version of Annual Indian Comics  Convention that took place in Sept ’13, the turnout was approx 25000 and Sales touched 75 Lakhs in 2 days.
9. At the 2nd edition of “Mumbai Film and Comic Con” that took place last year in Mumbai in Dec‘13, the turnout was 35000 and the sales crossed over 1 crore 20 Lakhs in 2 days.
10. At the 4th Comic Con India, that took place in Feb’14 in New Delhi, with a ticketed entry, the response was tremendous, footfall touched 40 thousand and sales touched almost 2 crores in 3 days.
11. At the 2nd annual “Bangalore Comic Con” that took place in Bangalore in Sept’ 14, with a ticketed entry, the turnout was approx 40000 in 3 days.
12. At the 1st ever annual “Hyderabad Comic Con” that took place in Hyderabad in Oct’ 14, with a ticketed entry, the turnout was approx 25000 in 3 days.

Reminder: I’m still looking for an Indian comics correspondent for The Beat.

3 COMMENTS

  1. 2 crore (20 million) rupee is about US$325,000 at exchange rates. To calculate it at Purchasing Power Parity, I’d need to know a standard basket of geek goods.

  2. Pretty sure you can make an adequate real exchange rate using the standard PPP rate – assuming all indians consume the exact same basket of goods (which, now that I think about it – for a country as diverse and populated – might be a bit of a stretch)

    Lakh, if i recall, is 10,000

  3. “A lakh or lac (/ˈlæk/ or /ˈlɑːk/; abbreviated L) is a unit in the South Asian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; Scientific notation: 105). In the Indian numbering system, it is written as 1,00,000.”

    1 Crore (1,00,00,000) (100 Lakhs = 10 million rupees)
    According to the Google currency calculator, 100,000 INR = USD 1616.81
    1 Crore = USD 161,681.50

    Indian comics are interesting… there hasn’t been a big commercial segment on newsstands. ACK, the “classics illustrated” of India, is continuously in reprint. Mainstream publishers are active, as listed above. (HarperCollins and Penguin have strong original GNs). Archie and others are slowly entering the market.

    Hindi and English are official languages. Of the 1.21 billion people, 422M speak Hindi, 226K are native speakers of English (#42 nationwide) and there are some 90M “users” of English.
    India might be the #1 market for English texts:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

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