Vikatan Group

Vikatan Group

Founded	1926 (1926)
Headquarters	Chennai
Key people	S. S. Vasan
Website	www.vikatan.com

The Vikatan Group is an Indian media conglomerate based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Its flagship Tamil-language weekly magazine Ananda Vikatan was launched in 1926.

Ananda Vikatan was started by Pudhoor Vaidyanadha Iyer in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not published due to financial difficulties. In January 1928, S. S. Vasan bought the rights from Iyer and relaunched the publication in February 1928 in a new format.¹ He paid ₹200 (equivalent to ₹45,000 or US$470 in 2023) at the rate of ₹25 per letter in the Tamil-language name (ஆனந்த விகடன்) of the publication to buy the rights.² He built it into a weekly and sales soon rose. Veteran journalist and media personality and Srinivasan's son S. Balasubramanian served as editor, managing director and publisher of the magazine for nearly fifty years till 2006.³ He also started the "Manavar Thittam" or student journalism scheme that has been active for the last thirty years and counting. He also launched Junior Vikatan, a biweekly Tamil investigative journal in the 1980s. Balasubramanian later served as chairman emeritus of the Vikatan Group after retiring from active involvement and handing over the reins to his son B. Srinivasan.

Ananda Vikatan is the group's flagship magazine.⁴ It also publishes various other magazines including Aval Vikatan, Chutti Vikatan, Doctor Vikatan, Junior Vikatan, Motor Vikatan, Naanayam Vikatan, Pasumai Vikatan, Sakthi Vikatan and TimePass. Cinema Vikatan is the group's YouTube channel that covers cinema.⁵

Vikatan Televistas was launched by Vasan Publications in the late 1990s starting with Tamil mega-serials on Sun TV such as Thirumathi Selvam and Thendral. From 2008 to 2016, they have also produced Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada serials for Gemini TV, Surya TV and Udaya TV respectively, all of which are part of the Sun TV Network. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic it withdrew from Sun TV and decided to move and proceed with other channels, too.⁶ Since 2021, it has produced and made stories for Star Vijay. It debuted with shows such as Thamizhum Saraswatiyum and Siragadikka Aasai. In 2023, it also debuted in Kalaignar TV with the show Ranjithame.

In 2024, Vikatan Televistas debuted in Hindi television industry by co-producing Udne Ki Aasha for StarPlus.⁷

The company ventured into film production as Vikatan Talkie with the comedy film Siva Manasula Sakthi, starring Jiiva and Anuya, in 2009. It was followed by the commercially unsuccessful film Vaalmiki in the same year.⁹ The media house still produces a variety of programs for television and has branched out into various streams of media content with an online digital broadcast of snippets of news, views, interviews, etc.⁶

The awards ceremony has been held since 2008, with the most recent being in January 2019.¹⁰