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Selling a new life

As Rupa & Co turns 70, NANDINI NAIR discovers that the business of books is more than selling paper and ink

AUTHORITATIVE Kapish G. Mehra surrounded by Rupa titles, the logo of which was designed by legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

The Capital recently witnessed a tri-celebration. Beloved writer Ruskin Bond released Jaswant Singh's "Travels in Transoxiana", published by Rupa & Co. A Publisher's Recognition Award was given to profound author Ramesh Menon. And Rupa & Co celebrated its 70th anniversary. At the event Bond congratulated Rupa & Co: "Many publishers disappear as quickly as authors do, so it (70 years) is a commendable achievement." He recounted his own experiences with previous publishers. A publisher once returned all his books. He lamented, that with the books in his house, "I could not reach the bathroom." He finally gave them to a shopkeeper. The astute shopkeeper made paper bags of his books. He sold rice and dal in them. Bond concluded, "So finally it was not wasted."

Author of "The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering", and other titles, a laconic Ramesh Menon said, "It is a privilege to be published by a house as distinguished, independent and genuinely Indian as Rupa." He called it a "second family, to which I am proud to belong."

Born out of two slim volumes of poetry in College Street Kolkata, Rupa & Co is now 70 years old with nearly 1,600 titles in print. Kapish G. Mehra manages the legacy started by his great-grandfather in 1936. He described Rupa's evolution as a "journey from the bhadralok of Kolkata's College Street to the rootless streets of Delhi."

The hidden office

The titles of Rupa are omnipresent on bookshelves. But the office was hidden, like a secret, in the serpentine lanes of Darya Ganj. A forgotten signboard pointed, "Rupa & Co". The entrance was blocked with boxes and scented with print. Chetan Bhagat, Maharani Gayatri Devi, Ruskin Bond, Anurag Mathur and others smirked from photo-frames on a stairwell. The main office was nicely quaint and Kapish looked strangely young for the high backed chair and religious pictures.

He asked, "Did you see the authors on the stairwell? Those are some of my biggest. I like to see their faces everyday."

He might have said, "I could make more selling buckets today," but to him, "Publishing is a very noble business to which I am proud to belong." Rupa and Co moved to Delhi in the 1970s when Kapish's father R.K. Mehra realised that Delhi was an erupting market, which could not be tackled from Kolkata. It expanded from merely a distribution to a publishing house. And four years ago its operations went from pan-India to pan-English-speaking-world. From being confined largely to the sub-continent, today Rupa has 762 titles on Amazon. Asked about the secret of this success, Kapish facetiously said, "I cannot tell you how the operations work as then it will be replicated!" But he did confess, "Previously people were selling exotic India. It was all about the shawls, carpets, Kama Sutra. But we provide readers with everything, from cookery books to tips for teenagers."

The new and the classic

Rupa while identifying new writers also restores to life the classics by making them available at a reasonable price. The office receives six to eight new manuscripts per day. Kapish admitted, with near guilt, that they have a 96 per cent refusal rate. This is despite all new authors insisting, "I am giving you a bestseller." Kapish reminisced, "As a child, I had a lot of authors being sweet to me. But I had my chocolates and fun with them." "War and Peace" and P.G. Wodehouse are available for as little as Rs.295 and 95. This is possible as some classics are out of copyright, while the company has bought the copyright of others.

Kapish was reluctant to talk about writers, scared about classical tantrums and magnum opus egos. But meantime there are other authors vying for a place on his coveted stairwell.

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