Pran Kumar Sharma, creator of iconic comic book character Chacha Chaudhary, was a bit eccentric, but a thorough gentleman and a nice man, said Diamond Comics publisher Gulshan Rai, remembering the cartoonist who died Tuesday night.
"He was, like any other artist, a bit eccentric. But as a person he was extremely nice and a thorough gentleman," Rai told IANS.
Better known as Pran, the cartoonist was suffering from colon cancer and died in Gurgaon. He was 75.
Their association began in 1981 when Rai asked Pran to work for him and start a cartoon series.
"For the past 33 years we were working together. He was working for a newspaper, when I met him and proposed the idea to start a cartoon book," said Rai.
Rai also recollected how Pran liked drinking.
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"He was a limited drinker, but would drink everyday," said Rai.
"We used to meet 2-3 times in a week, and shared very cordial relationship," he added.
It was this association that brought recognisation to Pran who used to illustrate for a Hindi magazine "Lotpot".
Pran also created other memorable characters like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman, and Chachi.
"All these characters were his ideas. But we(Diamond Comics team) would provide him storyboard and he would then draw these illustrations," he added.
But his death does not mean the end of his legacy.
Rai said all of Pran's content had been digitised and could be read online adding that different games have been created of these iconic characters.
"Comics never die," he said.
"Pran's legacy will live on and so will these characters," he added.