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The love of letters

PHOTO : SANDEEP SAXENA

Young turk Kapish Mehra prefers variety in books

The methodical way in which Kapish Mehra narrates his entry into Rupa and Co. — one of the largest publishers, distributors and importers of books in India — and the story thereafter is suggestive of the systematic approach the young entr epreneur is likely to have in his work. That, coupled with his novel ideas and a heart to take risk, surely deserves credit for taking his family business to newer heights. The company was flagged off by his grandfather D. Mehra in 1936 at Kolkata’s College Street with two slim volumes of Bengali poems, nurtured by his father Rajan Mehra, and now this third generation Mehra is doing his own bit.

That process, Kapish says, began right from the time when he was in class 4 in St. Columba’s. While reading a book, Kapish pointed out an error which even earned him a cheque of Rs.100.

“The book could have gone with that minor error, but my father scrapped all the copies and got it reprinted. I understood that the buck has to stop somewhere,” recalls the young publisher sitting at his office in Daryaganj. Unlike what people may think, the family business wasn’t thrust upon him. He had taken this crucial decision himself without anybody pushing him to do so.

“I always wanted to do something of my own, and that’s how I zeroed in on our publishing business. In eleventh standard, I took commerce with Maths, and in college, I consciously opted for Economics. After college, I would straightaway come to the office,” says Kapish.

Finally in 2004, Kapish joined the company full-time. Consistently taking new authors on board, increasing its presence internationally and reaching out to the readers in smaller towns and cities are the three primary areas Kapish has concentrated on. Chetan Bhagat’s “Five Point Someone” was his major assignment.

The investment banker’s debut novel went on to become a bestseller, but the subsequent release “One Night @ the Call Centre” became an even a bigger hit. He says piquantly, “One copy of ‘One Night…’ is sold every 31 seconds. A book selling more than 6000-7000 copies is said to be a bestseller, but we have already sold a million copies of “One Night…”

In 2006, Rupa experimented with Kishore Biyani’s “It Happened in India”.

The book in which Biyani, the CEO of Future Group, tracked his success story, also set the cash registers ringing. Ravi Subramanian, yet another corporate honcho, was given a platform by Rupa to pen a fictionalised account of Indian professionals working in banks abroad in “If God was a Banker”.

“I happened to enter the industry at a time when things were changing. I gave things a little push here. The company began to be process-driven. There were strict parameters to judge a book. One is supposed to read a number of pages and give a status report within a stipulated time period,” relates the head of Rupa, which publishes around 200 new titles and a few reprints every year.

The publishing house, over the years, has also come to be identified with low priced books that fall within easy reach of more and more readers. The bestsellers like “Inscrutable Americans”, “One Night…”,“Trust Me” are mostly priced between Rs.95 and 150.

“A college-goer who has to sustain on meagre pocket money will not spend Rs.400 on a book. The right pricing, right locations and well-balanced distribution across the region were all carefully re-devised. From A and B towns, we decided to venture out to C and D towns as well. I have a representative who goes to towns like Jabalpur, Bilaspur, Indore, Karnal and Patiala, etc. A small bookseller in Vizag is as important to me as an upmarket shop in a posh South Delhi market,” says Kapish. Through its own distribution network, the company has also expanded its presence from the Indian sub-continent to America and Australia.

Pampering the masses is as important to Kapish as indulging the niche market with their offerings.

“The biggest customer is at the bottom of the pyramid and we have to serve them. You can directly buy books from our website. We are customer-oriented and there are no pretensions about it. From a Chetan Bhagat to Encyclopaedia on Hinduism to books on solving Sudoku… can you get more diverse than that,” says Kapish, flaunting the stylishly packaged “Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary” — a book looking at Mumbai’s terrain.

Part of a buoyant industry which is registering an annual growth of 30 per cent, Kapish’s excitement is understandable.

Alongside growth, there are challenges galore — one of them being 100 per cent FDI in book publishing, but it looks like Kapish knows his way around.

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