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Photo: R.V. Moorthy

Kapish Mehra with father Rajan Mehra

Started more than seven decades back in Kolkata, the publishing house has literally come a long way from publishing two books a year to a whopping 250 now. Kapish agrees in the meantime the publishing Capital has also shifted from Kolkata to Delhi. A young chap on the block, in the geriatric world of publishing, Kapish says, “In the last 10 years, the publishing world has seen a lot of changes. The readers are now looking for specific categories and the publishers are fulfilling the demand. For instance, literary fiction is now just a category. People look out for sections like college fiction, racy reads and graphic novels. The self-help book space has become huge.” Exposure to the current events has increased the sale of contemporary non-fiction. “For instance, Jaswant Singh’s book. It sold 30,000 copies in the first month itself.” When the market norm for a book to be termed a bestseller is four to five thousand copies, this is a big figure. Kapish says the fact that Rupa is the only publisher in the country, which not only publishes but also distributes its books, works to its advantage.

“We have a global presence and we reach the nook and corner of the country.” He adds Rupa is also known for introducing new authors, which helps in cutting the clutter. “From Sunil Gavaskar to Chetan Bhagat, we have a long list but at the same time our bond with our existing authors is e also equally strong.” Kapish doesn’t take literary agents as a threat. “It is a new development in Indian publishing industry and rather than limiting themselves to big names if they do their job well they could help us find new authors.”

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