Aabid Surti to get lifetime achievement award at Comic Con Bangalore

NEW DELHI: National Award Winning Indian author, artist, cartoonist and playwright Aabid Surti is to receive the fourth Annual Comic Con India Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

The Comic Con India Awards 2015 ceremony will take place in Bangalore for the first time, during the Bangalore Comics Convention 2015 at White Orchid Convention Centre on 4 April. The event is being held from 3 to 5 April.

Surti will personally come and receive his award at the convention. For the competitive categories nominations have been accepted; the winners will be announced at the ceremony.

The Jury – CCI Awards consists of Neelabh Banerjee (author and artist), Vishwajyoti Ghosh (author) and Abhishek Sharma (writer and Filmmaker). The jury will go through the submitted entries and eventually shortlist and announce the winners.

Comic Con India founder Jatin Varma shared, “We at Comic Con India are honoured to bestow our Lifetime Achievement Award to Mr Surti. His contribution to Indian comics has been phenomenal. We are very lucky to have him accept the award at the upcoming Bangalore show and interact with his legions of fans.”

Comic Con India Awards is an initiative of Comic Con India (CCI). CCI Awards aim to recognise the work of all the professionals of India’s Comics Industry. It’s an attempt to bring into focus the novelty of this art form and acknowledge the efforts of numerous writers, artists and publishers in this field.

“I am very glad to announce the nominees for the CCI Awards this year, a tremendous amount of talent was on display, it certainly wasn’t an easy task shortlisting the nominees. And I am very excited to host the ceremony at the upcoming Bangalore Comic Con, in midst of thousands of fans,” said Varma.

So far, RK Laxman, Padma Vibhushan Late Mario Miranda and Giant of Indian Comics Pran Kumar Sharma have been honoured with CCI Lifetime Achievement Awards.

A National Award Winning Indian Author, Surti published his first story Tootela Farishta in Gujarati in 1965. Since then, Surti has written numerous short stories, novels, plays, children’s books, comic books, and travelogues. In 1993, he won a National Award for his short-story collection “Teesri Aankh”.

For the competitive categories, nominations have been accepted in the following categories:

  • BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL/COMIC BOOK OF THE YEAR  – (For Comic Book Series Only One Issue Is Eligible To Enter)
  • BEST PENCILLER/ INKER/ PENCILLER-INKER TEAM
  • BEST COLORIST
  • BEST COVER (Includes illustrated published covers of publications of any genre)
  • BEST WRITER  – (Includes Adaptations)
  • BEST CONTINUING GRAPHIC SERIES (Minimum 2 issues of the series should have been published during the year)
  • BEST CHILDREN’s ILLUSTRATED BOOK (Age 13 & Below)
  • BEST PUBLICATION FOR CHILDREN
  • BEST CHILDREN WRITER (Age 13 & Below)