Exhibition of cartoons by Ravikanth Nandula to open in Bengaluru this weekend

News in a nutshell is just not a social media, modern-day prevalence. Back within the day, newspapers would deliver out pocket cartoons or single panel illustrations that captured the gist of present affairs in a pithy, witty method. Pocket, an exhibition by Ravikanth Nandula, showcases the perfect of the artist’s work created over the previous 5 years for The Hindu Business Line.

Still, when there’s a barrage of occasions and happenings hurtling your method, how do you sift and sieve for information you should utilize? For cartoonist Ravikath Nandula, the selection has at all times been easy. “It is determined by how related a topic is. Will the picture spark one thing within the viewer’s thoughts or simply prod them? Knowing what to not present helps one determine,” says the Hyderabad-based cartoonist.

“Second, is it humorous and does it evoke additional thought? You have only one probability to current readers with a cryptic remark and you must make it depend.”

Ravikanth says the litmus check he makes use of is to gauge if an individual would reply to a state of affairs in the best way he has portrayed it. “That is the touchstone I exploit earlier than I ship a draft for approval,” he says, including that although it really works for essentially the most half, “There are instances you find yourself with egg in your face.”

It is that this sense of humour that’s mirrored in his work, whether or not he’s presenting the market economic system, local weather disaster, cyber safety or unemploymentin a sketch.

Having illustrated for a number of the main publications in South India for the reason that Eighties, Ravikanth says he was at all times doodling and sketching, and changing into an expert cartoonist was a childhood aim. “As a pupil, I used to be fascinated with science and know-how, however the turning level got here when the Council of Science and Industrial Research started publishing my photos of their science journal often,”

He started by offering drawings to accompany function articles in periodicals and magazines, arming himself with an Engineering diploma within the meantime. “This was a time earlier than the web and one would spend hours on the British Library going by way of again problems with The Punch, Blitz and different periodicals,” he says, including it not solely gave him an perception into world of reports and pictures, but in addition resulted in a lifelong admiration for RK Laxman, his “largest affect” and others akin to Charles Saxon, Mario Miranda and Abu Abraham.

Ravikanth entered the world of journalism at a time when reforms weren’t solely rocking the business, however the nation as properly. Newspapers, which had beforehand outsourced caricatures and pictures from worldwide information businesses had been wanting inwards at house grown expertise. And India, on the ascent from ‘creating nation’ standing supplied sufficient fodder.

“Over the years, topics akin to science and know-how which had been as soon as area of interest, turned part of the mainstream.” He goes on to clarify how his cartoons on matters akin to AI at the moment are part of mainstream information. “About 20 years in the past, it might take time for such an idea to change into frequent information. The web has helped give cartooning a brand new dimension.”

Ravikanth provides that this holds true not solely within the unfold of reports, but in addition with how content material is created. In his years as cartoonist, he has moved from sketching with charcoal pencils, his favorite medium, to utilizing digital and digital media to combine his work within the newsroom.

Ok Venugopal, chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd, will inaugurate Pocket on November 15 at 11am.

Pocket, a solo present of cartoons by Ravikanth N, will probably be on show on the Indian Cartoon Gallery, Bengaluru until November 30, 2025. Entry free, Sundays closed.