The release of Deepa Mehta's film based on Salman Rushdie's critically acclaimed bestseller has witnessed a surge in sales across Mumbai's bookstores
Mumbai’s bookstores are seeing a rise in book sales from unexpected quarters. Not since Stephanie Meyer’s vampire romance series — Twilight, has such a swing been witnessed where book and film fed off each other’s success.
“There is a definite rise in sales, especially when one looks at this genre — literary fiction, which isn’t typically a section where books sell fast,” reasons Sivaraman Balakrishnan, Senior Manager Marketing Communication, Crossword. He adds that it’s been a while since the book was released yet the recent few weeks have witnessed a leap in figures.” Backing his statement, he shares that while previously, an average of 12 copies were sold every week, the past three weeks have seen sales jump to 52 copies, every week.
Landmark’s Marketing Head, Lijin Thomas has a similar trend to share, “It’s not just the movie tie-in edition of the book, but all of Salman Rushdie’s books are in demand. Landmark would have sold 500-600 copies of Midnight’s Children since news about the film’s release started appearing, and it is only getting better.”
Halfway across town, at Fort, Kitab Khana’s Business Manager, T Jagath believes that the rise in books sales is two-pronged. “It’s a very old book — but also one of Rushdie’s best works. Anyone who wishes to write an autobiography would love to read this, for an idea of a masterly memoir,” he reason, adding that his older clients have read it already while the younger lot, mostly in the 20-30 age group are picking it up now, out of curiosity built up since news about the film’s release surfaced. u00a0“The new pick-ups have increased. There are at least u00a0three-four per day, and an average of 40-50 per month,” he shares.u00a0
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Book jacket of Midnight’s Children
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