Telling tales

Tue, Feb 26 01:15 AM

Shilpa Shetty will talk about how she handled her break up with Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai will chart her life from simple Mumbai girl to Hollywood star and Bachchan bahu, and a certain bus conductor, Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, will tell all about becoming the iconic Rajnikanth of the south Indian cinema. What's happening here? A tell-all session, a your neighborhood bookshop.

Because all these stars are set to release their biographies this year. Quite a flood, yes, but also great business.

Because movie star biographies and autobiographies are outselling many major Indian and international writers. "Biographies of filmstars are a huge success," says Ajay Mago of Om Books International.

Last year, Om Book had published SRK's biography by Anupama Chopra. Titled King of Bollywood and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema, all 20,000 copies from the first print were sold out.

Pramod Kapoor of Roli Books, who published Mr and Mrs Dutt: Memories of Our Parents by Namrata Dutt Kumar and Priya Dutt last year, says, "Although the book was more tribute than biography, it sold 14,000 copies, almost 12,000 of which were picked up in the first three months." Another a huge hit from last year was Romancing with Life by Dev Anand.

"It's runaway success. Almost 50 copies were picked within two weeks," says M Singh of Bahrisons Bookshop in Khan Market.

Come March 6, Om International will release Rajnikanth's biography on a massive scale. Apparently Aishwarya's biography has been picked up by one of the major international publishers.

Though the publishers refused to be named, since the final deal is yet to be signed, talking about the plans, an official says, "Since Aishwarya is a global Indian, we plan to do the book in a very international style. We are also looking at translating the book in international and national languages.

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