Pran Sahab was the Walt Disney of India, says cartoonist Sudhir Tailang

Sudhir Tailang, a cartoonist, paid his condolence to veteran cartoonist Pran, who passed away earlier today.

In an exclusive interview with ANI Tailang said, "I met Pran ji in 1970's when I came to Delhi from Rajasthan. I had a list of what to do and meeting Pran ji was before seeing Red Fort. Somehow, I found his number and went to meet him at his residence in Naraina. Chacha Choudhary had become popular by that time.

After that we met many times. He used to come to Hindustan Times when I was working there. We used to have a cup of tea and discuss a number of things. I last met him during his one man show. Unfortunately, I couldn't meet him after that.

His biggest contribution in cartoon sector was that he tried to break down the empire of Western comic characters that exists in round the world. Characters like Mandrake, Phantom, Blondie, Peanuts, Charlie Brown, Superman and Spiderman, all these characters are undoubtedly build with real hard work and also have a huge fan following all over the world.

Pran broke their monopoly. He even showed a way that a cartoonist can make money. So that way I would like to give both the credits to him. He will be always remembered in the world for giving characters like Chacha Chaudhary, Billu, Pinky and Sabu. These are the characters which were taken out from the soil of India.

The decade of sixties to eighties was his time. Even I made a small contribution in Diamond books at the time when Pran has launched Chacha Chaudhary in the form of book series with Diamond books. This launch in form of a book increased his popularity.

For me, he was the Walt Disney of comic series, in static form. His contribution will never go out time in the comic strip world. Although the taste of today's generation has changed, but he will always be remembered."

Veteran cartoonist Pran battled a multitude of health issues, including colon cancer for a year, and finally succumbed to a heart attack on Wednesday morning.

Pran was the creator of iconic characters like 'Chacha Chaudhary', 'Billu', 'Sabu' and 'Pinki', that captured the imagination of thousands of Indian children.

The 75-year-old artist was one of India's best known cartoonists and also received a lifetime achievement award in 2001.