“Ecommerce has become very important for Hindi book sales,” says Rakheja.īy then Manjul had caught up with the film series, though not without one glitch. Secrecy had become such a huge part of the Harry Potter marketing mystique that it could make co-ordination tough. This helped with the first books, but was soon to be superseded by ecommerce, which would prove to be an even more effective way to sell to a dispersed market. Dainik Bhaskar promoted the book in its pages – and helped get Advani for the launch – and then their agents helped you get the book itself. “Their newsagents helped distribute the book,” explains Rakheja. Manjul tied up with Dainik Bhaskar newspaper, another organisation attempting to reach this dispersed Hindi reading market. Compared to the English books market, which is concentrated in metros and larger cities, the Hindi market is much more dispersed. Dr Sudhir Dixit, a translator Manjul felt could do justice to the books, swung into action, and produced versions that were both faithful to the original, yet also made imaginative tweaks – like Indianised names for the school houses: Garudwar (Gryffindor), Nagshakti (Slytherin), Cheelghat (Ravenclaw) and Mehnatkash (Hufflepuff).
AVAKADABRA IN HARRY POTTER IN HINDI SERIES
Manjul knew the films, which were also being dubbed in Indian languages would be a big booster for the books, but they would have to play catch-up since Warner was rushing the series to the screen. “Afterwards we learned there was quite a difference between our bid and the second-highest one,” admits Rakheja. There was a fair amount of bidding, but Manjul made sure it won. The books had been a success in multiple languages across the world and Warner Brothers was about to release the first film. Vikas Rakheja, MD of Manjul, admits their inexperience probably helped: “We were young and reckless!” They had only published a handful of titles and were desperate to make a breakthrough when they became aware of the Harry Potter phenomenon, which really only started going global in the year Manjul was set up.įair Amount of Bidding but Manjul Made Sure it Wonīy the time the Hindi rights were bid for in 2001, others were interested as well. That such a risk was being taken with Harry Potter books was probably due to the company taking it – Manjul, a relatively new player in the Hindi publishing, set up in Bhopal in 1999. The entire Hindi market was felt to be extremely price-sensitive and unlikely to pay anything like the prices for English books. That first title launched by Advani, then deputy prime minister, startled the Hindi publishing business not just for such a high-profile launch in the small category of children’s books, but also for its price point – Rs 165, which was unimaginably high for a Hindi children’s book. Harry Potter also shook up the Hindi publishing business. The Harry Potter books have been credited with reinventing the market for children’s fiction and fantasy novels, giving a much-needed boost to bookstores, which hosted the famous midnight rollouts and, also ecommerce, where Amazon early on grasped how big the phenomenon would be, and sold the books at a controversial, loss-making discount, in the hope that ordering the books would hook people onto online shopping.
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There was global celebration of the huge success of the books, which have created an empire of books, films, websites, plays, a theme park and merchandise that shows no signs of coming to an end. This week, the original series celebrated the launch of the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 20 years ago. This was, of course, Harry Potter Aur Paras Patthar, the first volume of the Hindi version of the Harry Potter series written by JK Rowling. Yet one launch might stand out, of a book released on November 14, 2003, about a boy who had faced a terrible attack that killed his parents and yet, magically, he lived…
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MUMBAI: As a seasoned politician, LK Advani has presided over very many book launches - academic treatises, commemorative volumes, political memoirs, policy reviews and so much more.