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BYCHARU SINGH

I

T COULD have been fantasy or even

myth. Yet, not many in the Indian pub-

lishing world were all that surprised or

even shocked, when banker-turned-author Amish Tripathi, 38, bagged a

whopping Rs 5 crore deal for his next series

after his best-selling Shiva trilogy. It is the

biggest advance paid to an Indian author by a

homegrown publishing house, Westland. Yet,

it is no high-stakes gamble. With five lakh

copies of his mythological fantasyThe Oath of

the Vayuputras having sold within a day of its

release last month, Tripathi is seen as the

new mytho-fantasy superstar. The large

advance is also an acknowledgment that

books on myths and fantasy are the hot new

moneymakers in publishing. Karan Johar has

already bought the rights of Tripathis first

book, The Immortals of Meluha, showing Bol-lywoods interest in it.

Tripathis advance is just the tip of the

iceberg. The genre has been gaining popular-

ity for almost a decade. The trend began in

the early 2000s with Ashok Bankers series

on the Ramayana and Mahabharatafollowed

by a number of books, mostly slick, fast-

paced thrillers, based on characters from

Indian mythology. This was followed by Tri-

pathis Shiva trilogy and Anand Neelakan-

tansAsura which is based on a re-interpreta-

tion of the asura king, Ravana. Currently, the

market is flooded with a number of books

belonging to the myth and fantasy genre and

many of them are doing well. This is part of aglobal trend that favours books in the pure

fantasy and myth genre; however in India it

is based on a re-interpretation of ancient

Indian mythology but told in a contempo-

rary, fast-paced style. Nandita Aggarwal,

publishing director, adult and business

books, with Hachette India, says, Since

Bankers series, there has been no looking

back. These stories based on popular myths

appeal to the Indian mindset and it works

well for us. Over the last few years, they have

become fantastically popular in India. I

would say that as compared to other genres,

mythology is way ahead and is the genre to

watch out for in the future.Publishers acknowledge that the names

to watch out for in the genre are Ashwin

Sanghi (The Krishna Key), Anand Neelakantan

(Asura: Tale of the Vanquished) and Krishna

Udayasankar (Govinda: The Aryavarta Chroni-

cles). The list also includes Devdutt Pattanaik

who has written books centered around

myth and management; former editor and

journalist Sandipan Deb whose recent

releaseThe Last Waris a modern day version

of the Mahabharataset in Mumbai and

Sangeeta BahadursJaal, a complete work of

mytho-fantasy not based on a deity but set

against the backdrop of the epic age. Anuj

Bahri of Bahri Sons, a popular Delhi book-

store, who is also Tripathis agent, says,Fan-

tastic writing has become extremely popular

over the past few years. Harry Potteris proba-bly the highest selling book in fantastic writ-

ing globally. In India, fantastic writing starts

from mythology where you are largely re-

looking at the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Mythology has over the past few years made

it to the forefront of publishing. It is for this

reason that we have added a new section

which is all fantasy. VK Karthika, chief edi-

tor at Harper Collins, adds, Quite a few

books in the myth and fantasy genre have

been extremely successful, as a result, many

authors are giving a different but rather

vibrant spin to old myths and this is popular-

ising this writing. Tripathis Shiva trilogy is

MARCH 24-30, 2013 eye 13

The popularityof mythological

writing breaksold recordsand createsnew stars

I want to explore the epics as

tales of humanity, not divinity,as something that could havebeen history and not someimprobable fantasy that defiedall logic and science, saysKrishna Udayasankar