Graphic India ropes in Anshuman Misra as Country head

In his new role, Misra will be working closely with founder and CEO Sharad Devarajan to expand the company’s operations in the region across animation, live action and the metaverse.

Misra comes to Graphic India as a seasoned media professional with over two decades of experience as managing director/CEO of major media brands such as Turner, WarnerMedia, and BBC in India and Asia Pacific.

He was also instrumental in launching global brands such as CNNI, BBC World, HBO, and Cartoon Network in India and formed joint ventures such as Zee Turner and CNN IBN (now CNN18).

“Anshuman Misra has a proven track record as a media leader who has established some of the most iconic brands and businesses in India. I am thrilled and honoured to bring his wealth of experience to Graphic India as we expand our mission to create characters, heroes and stories that are uniquely Indian, but entertaining and inspiring to audiences around the world,” said Devarajan. “India has the world’s largest youth population and its time it shared an equivalent portion of the annual $100 billion-dollar global character entertainment and licensing industry.”

“I feel privileged to be associated with a dynamic company such as Graphic India with its clear goal to establish itself as the Indian superhero content company for home and abroad,” said Misra. “I look forward to accomplishing that mission with the help of the super talent we have at Graphic India and with the guidance of our founder Sharad Devarajan.”

Graphic India plans to create original Indian superheroes, mythological worlds, and character entertainment franchises. The company recently created and produced the series, ‘The Legend of Hanuman’, which was ranked by independent data analytics group Ormax Media as the #2 show in India on SVOD Platforms for all of 2021, with over 23 million viewers.

Its other properties include ‘Chakra The Invincible’ created by Devarajan and late Stan Lee (co-creator of ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘X-Men’ and ‘The Avengers’) and ‘Baahubali The Lost Legends’, an animated series based on the hit film franchise with over 70 episodes.

Devarajan and Graphic India are also a producer on the upcoming live-action film, ‘The Archies’ which was recently announced by Netflix and directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Tiger Baby.

The company has produced over 200 animated episodes and over 300 comics and graphic novels and is also developing over a dozen live action film and TV projects across Hollywood, and Bollywood. With hundreds of stories and thousands of characters, Graphic India’s library of comic book characters and titles include Devi, The Sadhu, 18 Days, Shadow Tiger, Avatarex, Mistry PI, Shikari Force, Reincarnation Man, The Mighty Yeti, Monkey Master, and more.

Graphic India also recently spun-out a new digital media start-up, Toonsutra, to become India-focused mobile webtoon business.

Graphic India was launched by a group of investors including US comic book company Liquid Comics, Start Media and CA Media, the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group.