Renowned cartoonist Ajit Ninan passes away in Mysuru, tributes pour in

He was also known for his celebrated comic strip, ‘Detective Moochhwala’, which featured the eponymous detective and his pet dog, in India Today’s Target magazine in the 1980s.

As news of his passing spread, tributes poured in from colleagues, friends, and fans on social media.

The Indian Institute of Cartoonists, which maintains Bengaluru’s Indian Cartoon Gallery, shared its condolences and recalled that just the previous year, they had presented Ninan with the Barton Lifetime Achievement Award.

“So sorry to hear…He was deputy head boy at school and we were very proud of him,” cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, Ninan’s schoolmate, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Others shared memories of growing up reading his comic strips.

Veteran journalist and chairman of the Asian College of Journalism, Sashi Kumar, shared his memories of Ninan with The Indian Express. “We were college mates and we were very close…..I had started an ad agency and he was our art director. When he came to ACJ a couple of years ago, he made a sketch of me in two minutes flat……his cartooning style was characterised by mirth….he had an eye on how to caricature people and funny situations,” he said.

Another veteran journalist with the Hindu Group, Krishna Prasad, shared memories of working with Ninan at Outlook. “He was very generous with his colleagues. There is hardly anybody who does not have something given to them by Ajit Ninan…he had a tremendous work ethic. He came to the office first out of all of us. His work was prolific because he would not hesitate to do the smallest or the biggest thing in a newspaper or a magazine,” he said.

Ninan is survived by his wife, two daughters, and two grandchildren.