Amish Tripathi

Amish Tripathi

Author Amish Tripathi.
Born 18 October 1974
Mumbai, India[1]
Occupation Novelist
Nationality Indian
Alma mater IIM Calcutta
Genre Fiction
Notable works The Immortals of Meluha
The Secret of the Nagas
The Oath of the Vayuputras
Notable awards Society Young Achievers Award for Literature[2]
India's New Icons[3]
Celebrities Top 100 list[4][5][6]
Communicator of the Year Award 2014[7] Man of the Year 2013 by Radio One[8]
Pride of India 2014[9]
India's First Literary Popstar 2015[10]
Spouse Preeti Vyas
Children Neel Tripathi
Website
authoramish.com

Amish Tripathi (born 18 October 1974), commonly known as Amish, is an Indian author. He is known for his novels The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. The three books collectively comprise the Shiva Trilogy. Tripathi's debut work The Immortals of Meluha was a surprisingly a bestseller, breaking into the top seller chart within a week of its launch.[11][12] The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 2.2 million copies in print and over Rs 60 crore in sales.[13] Forbes India has ranked him among the top 100 celebrities in India thrice in a row, in 2012, 2013 and 2014.[14][15][16][17] Amish was also selected as an Eisenhower Fellow, a prestigious programme for outstanding leaders from around the world.[18]His next trilogy,The Ramachandra series ,in which Scion of Ikshvaku is the first book which will release on 22 June 2015.

At the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2015, Amish announced that his next book series, the Ram Chandra series, will explore the story of Lord Ram. The first book, titled Scion of Ikshvaku is expected to release later in the year. He released a video teaser of the book as well.[19]

Career

Amish Tripathi grew up near Rourkela, Odisha.[20][21] He is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.[14] Although originally he wanted to be a historian, Tripathi, at least for the time being, chose a career in finance because he couldn't afford the former.[22] He worked for 14 years in the financial services industry, in companies such as Standard Chartered, DBS Bank and IDBI Federal Life Insurance, before starting his writing career.[23] Amish was also selected as an Eisenhower Fellow, a prestigious programme for outstanding leaders from around the world.[24]

The Immortals of Meluha, Tripathi's first novel, was published in February 2010. It is the first book in the Shiva Trilogy.[25] The second book in the series, The Secret of the Nagas, was released on 12 August 2011. The third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras, was released on 27 February 2013.[26] The trilogy is a fantasy re-imagining of the Indian deity Shiva's life and adventures. The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 2.2 million copies in print and over Rs 60 crore in sales".[13][27]

The movie rights of The Immortals of Meluha were purchased by Dharma Productions in early 2012.[28] Also The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas have been released in UK through Jo Fletcher Books (an imprint of Quercus Books) in January 2013 and November 2013 respectively.[29][30]

Amish Tripathi has recently been listed as one of India's New Icons by the DNA newspaper in its eighth anniversary special.[31] Amish has also been awarded Society Young Achievers Award for Literature[32]

He also won the Communicator of the Year Award 2014, instituted by the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI).[33] PRCI, the premier body of PR, Media and HR professionals and academicians, has announced the award to Amish at the 8th Global Communication Conclave in Mumbai. Amish Tripathi was named Man of the Year 2013 by Radio One.[8]

Adaptations

The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras have been released in the Indian subcontinent and around the world in various languages.[30][34][35]

The Immortals of Meluha is available in 14 languages
English (South Asia), Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, Malayalam, Kannada, Bahasa Indonesian, Tamil, English (UK), Estonian, Spanish and Marathi.

The Secret of the Nagas is available in 8 languages
English (South Asia), Hindi, Telugu, Gujarati, Assamese, English (UK), Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi.

The Oath of the Vayuputras is available in 6 languages
English (South Asia), English (UK), Hindi, Telugu, Gujarati,[36] Malayalam and Marathi.

The books have been translated into a number of local languages [37] with the author believing that publishing as a whole is gradually being embedded in the Indian business sensibilities.[38] Further explaining his thoughts, Tripathi said "I genuinely believe those five years from today, we will have a situation when other languages will account for higher sales of books than in English. That is the big change happening in publishing—it is taking pride in its own culture than knowing other cultures like in television, where regional language channels have more TRPs."[38] Other than the local versions, the books have also been released in the Amazon Kindle version, available in India and UK.[39]

In addition to the Indian movie rights sold to Dharma Productions, the international movie rights to The Immortals of Meluha are under discussion. Tripathi is represented by Creative Artists Agency, a top Hollywood based talent agency, for movie deals on the Shiva Trilogy.[40][41]

Influence

All of Tripathi's books (released and planned) are on religious topics since he is a devoted worshiper of Shiva.[42][43][44] His grandfather was a Sanskrit scholar and a Pandit in Benares. Tripathi says that he’s learnt most of his knowledge of Hindu theology and religion from his grandfather and his very religious parents. He had turned into an atheist in the early 1990s but returned to faith when he started writing his books. He believes that religiosity and liberalism go hand-in-hand in India, as he said at the Jaipur Literary Festival in 2011.[45] Amish quotes from the ancient Hindu scripture Rig Veda to say that 'Truth is one, but the wise men know it as many; God is one, but we can approach Him in many ways'. He says that he lives this philosophy; in his puja room at home, besides the idols of Lord Shiva and other Hindu Gods, he also regularly worships pictures of the Muslim Kaaba, Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, Prophet Zarathustra, Gautam Buddha besides symbols of many other religions.[45]

Marketing

In the Indian market where large sales volumes of books are rare, Tripathi's books have been enormously successful. Tripathi's marketing skills and strategies have been widely credited for the success of his novels.[46][47] Tripathi himself says: "It’s a fallacy to think that a good book sells itself. I can give you a long list of books that I think should have been bestsellers but nobody’s heard of them. My management background along with marketing experience helped me devise effective strategies for promoting my book."[46]

Weeks before The Immortals of Meluha hit the bookshops, Tripathi printed sample copies of the first chapter and persuaded bookshops and chains to give them away free to anyone who approached the cash counter, creating a buzz.[11] It was an unprecedented move and gave the book very high visibility considering that at that time, Tripathi was an unknown author. He also made presentations to big retail chains, visited smaller retailers, met local distributors and regularly sent email updates to various stakeholders. Tripathi targeted social media websites for promoting his debut novel, and made a trailer film with a background score reportedly by Taufiq Qureshi and uploaded it on YouTube.[47]

For promotion of his second book, Tripathi created video trailers and screened them at multiplexes. These trailers were of similar quality as movie trailers, complete with visual effects.[48] They were released with the Shahrukh Khan starrer Ra.One.[46] Tripathi believed that this would "work as the audience that visits theatres is the same that reads my books."[49] Three other trailers were released on YouTube.[50]

In 2013, a music album called Vayuputras, an original soundtrack based on The Oath of the Vayuputras, the final book of the Shiva Trilogy, was released. The album had songs by artists like Sonu Nigam, Taufiq Qureshi, Palash Sen, Bickram Ghosh amongst others working on this. This was the first time ever that an original soundtrack has been made for a book series.[51]

References

  1. ↑ "Author Amish > Quick Facts".
  2. ↑ "Society Young Achievers Award for Literature". [IndiaTimes]. 23 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "India's New Icons". [DNA Syndication]. 31 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "Celebrities Top 100 list 2012". [Forbes India].
  5. ↑ "Celebrities Top 100 list 2013". [Forbes India].
  6. ↑ "Forbes India Celebrity 100 List 2014". [Forbes India].
  7. ↑ "Amish Tripathi Gets Communication Award 2014". [The Asian Age].
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "John Abraham talking about today's 'Man of The Year' - Amish Tripathi". Radio One.
  9. ↑ "Dr Mukesh Batra Felicitated with Pride of India award by WCRC". [News PR].
  10. ↑ "Nexbrands felicitates and acknowledges the Visionaries of India". [India Education Diary].
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Sheela Reddy (18 July 2011). "The Lo-Cal Literati". Outlook. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  12. ↑ Amish Tripathi (18 September 2010). "The MBA Writer". OPEN. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Amish Tripathi Planning Rama Series". [The Hindu]].
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lopex, Rachel (26 April 2013). "How Amish Tripathi changed Indian publishing". Hindustan Times (HT Media Ltd). Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "Forbes India 2012". [Forbes India].
  16. ↑ "Forbes India 2013". [Forbes India].
  17. ↑ "Forbes India Celebrity 100 list 2014". [Forbes India].
  18. ↑ "Eisenhower Fellowships India Chapter Celebrations on 21st October". [The Alternative].
  19. ↑ "ZEEJLF Amish Tripathi Next Book Series on Lord Ram". [DNA].
  20. ↑ http://www.filmfare.com/interviews/-i-watched-love-story-4-times-in-a-day-amish-tripathi-3930.html
  21. ↑ http://www.telegraphindia.com/1121007/jsp/odisha/story_16059713.jsp
  22. ↑ "Amish Tripathi’s going digital". DNA. 9 April 2010.
  23. ↑ "Bestselling bosses". Business Today. 30 October 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  24. ↑ "Eisenhower Fellowships India Chapter Celebrations on 21st October". [The Alternative].
  25. ↑ "MBA, myth and 'Meluha', a phenomenon called Amish". The Times of India. 28 July 2011.
  26. ↑ "The Oath of the Vayuputras – Book Preview". Latest Book Reviews. 12 January 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  27. ↑ "Amish Tripathi Planning Rama Series". [The Hindu]].
  28. ↑ Upala K Basu (4 January 2012). "Karan Johar brings Meluha to life". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  29. ↑ TNN (16 January 2013). "The Shiva Trilogy overseas rights bought by Jo Fletcher Books". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 "Language editions". [This Week Bangalore]. 9 December 2013.
  31. ↑ "New ICONS". Team DNA. [DNA]. 31 July 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  32. ↑ "Celebs Attend Young Achievers Awards". The Times of India ([IndiaTimes]). 23 October 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  33. ↑ "Amish Tripathi Gets Communicator Award". The Asian Age. [The Asian Age]. 24 February 2014.
  34. ↑ "Author Amish, Latest Update". Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  35. ↑ "Released In Several Regional Languages Amish’s Shiva Trilogy Is the Fastest selling book series in Indian publishing history". This Week Bangalore.
  36. ↑ "Shiva Shall Now Speak in Gujarati". The Times of India.
  37. ↑ "Language editions". This Week Bangalore. 9 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 "English mass-market books tap Hindi speakers". Zee News. 11 August 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  39. ↑ "Secret of the Nagas [Kindle Edition]". Amazon Kindle. 22 May 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  40. ↑ Baliga, Shashi (5 February 2012). "Myths with a modern twist". The Hindu (Chennai, India).
  41. ↑ Ganguly, Arghya (9 July 2011). "Karma cola and masala mythology".
  42. ↑ Mande, Abhishek (12 January 2012). "Interview with the author of The Immortals of Meluha". Rediff.
  43. ↑ "Fame by name". Pune Mirror.
  44. ↑ Pandit, Shruti (12 June 2012). "My books are Shiva’s blessings". The Times of India.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 "Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi with Amrita Tripathi, introduced by Renuka Chatterjee.".
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Bhawani, Namrata (5 December 2011). "Myth and match: Talk with Amish Tripathi". The Times of India.
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 New, Today's (28 August 2011). "Romancing the market". The Telegraph (Calcutta, India).
  48. ↑ Banerjee, Poulomi (7 September 2011). "The secret of Amish". The Telegraph (Calcutta, India).
  49. ↑ Mehta, Shweta. "A film on The Immortals of Meluha?". Hindustan Times.
  50. ↑ The Secret of the Nagas, 2011, Acknowledgements, p. xii
  51. ↑ TNN (16 February 2013). "Shiva trilogy music released". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 March 2013.