Ananda Vikatan is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India.

History

Ananda Vikatan was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not published due to financial difficulties. In January 1928 Subramaniam Srinivasan bought the rights from Vaidyanadhaiyer and relaunched the publication in February 1928 in a new format He paid inr 200 at the rate of ₹25 per alphabet in the Tamil language name (ஆனந்த விகடன்) of the publication to buy the rights. He built it up into a weekly and sales soon rose. Veteran journalist and media personality and son of Subramaniam Srinivasan, S. Balasubramanian served as editor, managing director and publisher of the magazine for nearly 50 years till 2006. 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. He continues to be Chairman Emeritus of the group after handing over the reins to his son B. Srinivasan.

Visual media

Vikatan Televistas was launched by Vasan Publications in the late 1990s starting with Mega-serials on Sun TV such as Thirumathi Selvam and Thendral. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic it withdrew from Sun TV and decided to move and go ahead with other channels too. Since 2021, it has been producing and making stories for Star Vijay.It debuted with various shows such as Thamizhum Saraswatiyum and Siragadikka Aasai. In the year of 2023, it also debuted in Kalaignar TV with the show Ranjithame In 2024, Vikatan Televistas debuted in Hindi television industry by Co-producing Udne Ki Aasha for StarPlus. The company ventured into film production as Vikatan Talkies, and successfully made the comedy Siva Manasula Sakthi starring Jiiva and Anuya that launched the career of the director Rajesh. They then followed this with the commercially unsuccessful byVaalmiki. The media house still produces a variety of programs for television and has branched out into various streams of media content with an online digital broadcast of snippets of news, views, interviews etc.

Films

Serials

Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards

The awards ceremony has been held since 2008, with the most recent being in January 2019.

Circulation details

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, for the period of July–December 2004, circulation stood at 430,534 per week. This represents a 22 per cent growth over the previous half-year period.

Subsidiaries

Ananda Vikatan has had numerous sister magazines. These included Aval Vikatan, Chutti Vikatan, Doctor Vikatan, Junior Vikatan, Motor Vikatan, Naanayam Vikatan, Pasumai Vikatan, Sakthi Vikatan and TimePass. Cinema Vikatan is the YouTube channel that covers cinema.