Dibyajyoti Sarma's Blog, page 28

Film to Revive Soviet-era Children’s Literature

A new documentary puts the spotlight on the lost world of children’s literature in Marathi imported from the then USSR. Dibyajyoti Sarma talks to the men behind the movie

Remember those heady days of India’s brush with serious socialism when Jawaharlal Nehru and Nikita Khrushchev were fast friends?

Whatever you may make of the political implication of the friendship, it was indeed a good time for Indian literature enthusiasts to make acquaintance with the treasure trove of the Russian literature,classics or otherwise, fromTolstoy, Dostoevsky and Gorky to sci-fi stories for young adults, to the magazines for grownups, ‘Soviet Land’, and for youngsters, ‘Misha’.

Forget the propaganda, for socialist India those days, those books and magazines, translated to all major Indian languages and published by Progress, Mir and Raduga Publications in Moscow, were of such print quality Indian printers could only dream of. They had quality papers, great bindings, extraordinary illustrations, and all of it at a very affordable price. This was because it was subsidised by the USSR government.

The best of the lot, of course, were the translated children literature, in the magazine and in books. There were the science fiction novels by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and there were the adventure stories by Arkady Gaidar and Viktor Dragunsky.

There were other books as well, with impressive illustrations, which focused on the lives of the children of the USSR, not just Russia, but also of places like Lithuania, Belarus and so on.

For translation and distribution of the books, the Russian counterpart had several affiliate organisations across the country, including the People’s Publishing House in Delhi. These publishing houses received encouragement from the USSR’s publishing department in the form of big discounts on high quality books.

Predictably, the golden run ended when the USSR disintegrated in 1991. Yet, childhood nostalgia dies hard.

Lost Stars

So, we have a Marathi documentary now, which hopes to bring the Soviet-era children’s literature back into limelight. The film, titled DhukyatHaravlele Laal Taare (Red Stars Lost in the Mist), attempts to engage in a discussion as to how the soviet books translated into Marathi could be revived.

Made by Prasad Deshpande, a Mumbai-based filmmaker, along with friends Nikhil Rane and Devadatta Rajadhyaksha, the film, currently in the post-production stage, brings to life characters such as Dennis, Chuk and Gek, Vasilisa as well as Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. It also includes anecdotes by translators, personalities from Marathi literature and academicians like Vineel Bhurke, who talks about how the books nurtured his love for science. As the filmmakers continue to receive feedback from experts and the public, they are adding new material even during the post-production work.

Rajadhyaksha’s journey began almost a decade ago, when he rediscovered his childhood stash in a sealed box. Thereafter, he started hunting for more books in old bookshops. A Facebook page — Soviet Literature in Marathi — created in 2012, helped him reach out to collectors across India and even diaspora abroad. “The response was beyond what I had imagined. Soon, we were exchanging notes, reliving memories and had become a vibrant community,” he says.

It was through this page that Rane reached out to him. “When I found an uploaded copy of Chuk and Gek after 25 years, I was overwhelmed,” says Rane, an HR professional. His father is an avid collector of books, and he was, thus, exposed to the literature at an early age. Today, the 34-year-old has a burgeoning collection of Soviet-era books translated into Marathi.

Deshpande’s expertise in filmmaking and sense of adventure (he holds a Guinness World Record for the longest journey by car in a single country, in an expedition for which he was the filmmaker) was the catalyst in the story of Soviet era children’s books being told through Dhukyat Haravlele Laal Taare.

Like a Matryoshka Doll

But, why a film, instead of, say, a website? “We believe the film will convey the rich legacy of these books in a much better way,” says Deshpande. “In addition to the inherent strengths of an audio-visual medium, a film also has the advantage of conveying the perspective of book-lovers and experts in their own words.”

Rane likens the experience of making the film as opening the famed Russian Matryoshka doll. “When you open a nesting doll, you find another within. Similarly, interactions with experts have given us further references on facets of these books, which we were unaware of. Our intention is to tell as complete a story as possible, and hence, we’re taking our time to complete the film. However, while scheduling further interviews, we are working on editing of the footage in parallel,” he explains.

The makers intend to screen the film, which will be ready in July/ August, at educational institutes and Rotaract clubs. The plan is to follow the screenings with interactive talks related to the story, or have eminent Marathi artistes read to the children.

According to Rajadhyaksha, the ideal audience is anyone who loves listening to a story. While this film would be a revival of memories for many, it will also introduce this fascinating topic to others. “One didn’t need prior knowledge about ships to appreciate ‘Titanic’ or about dinosaurs to enjoy ‘Jurassic Park’,” he argues.

Short Takes

Reviving the culture of reading
Rajadhyaksha: “The dynamics on reading habits are complex.We hope to stir the imaginations of our younger viewers through the film and make them receptive to new genres of literature. Hopefully this will translate in them visiting the nearest bookstore or library (or ordering an eBook).”

A nostalgia trip?
Rane: “The film will evoke nostalgic memories for a certain generation. However, its ambit goes beyond that.The era of these books – with amazing content of great variety, great production values, and affordable prices – was a golden era for children’s literature in India. The new generation deserves to know the story of that era.”

Revaluating the past
Rane: “Sadly, the publishing houses that published these books no longer exist, and hence, no data is available. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a few hundreds of titles were translated into Marathi, with topics ranging from children’s literature, classic, technical literature and socio-political literature.

Favourite books
Rajadhyaksha: Denis-chya Goshti (The adventures of Denis) is a collection of short stories, about the daily life of a young boy from a middle-class Moscow family. The influence of this book was such that my best friend and I used to invariably call each other ‘Denis’ and ‘Mishka’ for a couple of years.

(This feature first appeared in PrintWeek India.)

The Science and Commerce of the Art of Printmaking

Today, the success of Indian art is a recognised fact. But how is its neglected cousin, printmaking, faring? Dibyajyoti Sarma finds out

Following WB Yeats (‘How can we know the dancer from the dance?’) can we ask, “If printmaking is the art from, are the artists printmakers?” Artist Subrat Kumar Behera has an answer. The artists are not printmakers, he says. “It’s just a technique to explore your art to reach the masses.” In other words, a printmaker is primarily an artist, and printmaking is the technique.

The history of Indian printmaking has an illustrious past, with names like Raja Ravi Varma, the Tagore family and even MF Husain. Yet, in the context of modern Indian art, its existence seems to be relegated to the corner. There are a number of reasons. Unlike earlier, when all production work was done manually, these days, technology has made everything easier and faster. This, according to Behera has blurred the line between commercial print and fine art printmaking. The other problem, he says, is that printmaking is a very younger medium in India. So, of course, it will need some more time and awareness before it finds a solid ground.

According to art historian Lina Vincent, the Tagore family would be an appropriate way to begin the discussion of Indian fine art printmaking. Raja Ravi Varma followed the process of mechanical multiplication of imagery that he wanted the masses to have access to, mainly the iconography of Gods, Goddesses and mythological characters. He made paintings, which were then copied and printed as oleographs by German technicians. But, under the aegis of the Tagore family, Santiniketan became a centre where influences from the east and west came together. “Different techniques of printmaking, like etching, dry point, lithography, wood cut and linocut became popular among artists. Artists like Chittaprosad and Somnath Hore used printmaking and its strength of making multiples in a politically significant way,” she says. “During the 60s and 70s, most artists (including MF Husain) experimented with printmaking as it was an integral practice in the institutions and studios.”

The waning of printmaking could perhaps be connected to the international success and recognition of painters, Vincent argues. “Indian modernity was deeply associated with painting. I think (and this may be debatable) that this attitude filtered down into the institutions and ultimately to Indian galleries. Combined with a lack of awareness of printmaking among buyers and the rise of other printing technologies that became confused with printmaking processes, and inertia among artists too, printmaking as an artistic process lost its attraction,” she explains.

“I personally think there are several factors responsible for this,” says artist Kavita Shah. “I would say the first one is cultural conditioning. Most middle class Indian household will not think of putting up some image of painting to decorate their house. At the most, they will hang calendar with image of God. Or frame an image of god or landscape or flowers from some magazine or calendar. Secondly, in India, the buyer is elite, who thinks the work art should be unique and no one should have the same thing that he has. So, multiples in print becomes a disadvantage. Plus, a rich person who can afford to buy a unique piece of canvas for Rs 10 lakh finds a print of Rs 10,000 something less of value and significance.”

Shah says to promote print is not economically viable for mainstream galleries. “Mounting an exhibition involves lot of hidden costs, such as invites, catalogues, openings, gallery rents, staff, follow up with clients, etc. So, commission received from the sale of prints may not cover the costs at times,” she adds.

Another reason why young printmakers are giving up prints and turning to other mediums, Shah says, is that at times buyers are not really looking for good prints or work but names. “I do get calls asking for a print by certain artists. If yes, how much? If price is okay just book it without seeing the work,” she says.

Artist V G Venugopal says over the years, printmaking in India has reduced to just an academic fulfillment at art institutes, rather than being a parallel fine art medium. “The commercial interests of the galleries are also a reason. Thus, it becomes difficult for artists to sustain by practicing only printmaking,” he says.

Print collector Waswo X Waswo begs to argue that there is a great misunderstanding about fine art printmaking. “A print is different from a reproduction. A reproduction is basically a photograph of an original piece of art which has then been mechanically reproduced on paper or canvas. A fine art print, on the other hand, is never a copy of some pre-existing artwork. Rather, it is made to exist exclusively as an etching, woodcut or lithograph and there is no pre-existing artwork that has been copied. The print itself is the original. That is something hard for many people to understand, so sadly many people assume that a print is bought because the collector cannot afford what they imagine is some ‘original’ that has been copied. This misunderstanding has grown even worse since there are many people marketing reproductions and miscalling them “fine art prints”.

The Spread of Printmaking

So, each print produced via a technique of printmaking is an original artwork, just like a painting on canvas is. Yet, unlike the work on canvas, which only one person can own, a fine art print can have more owners, making it the most democratic of all visual arts. It can have a bigger reach and it can be affordable compared to other art forms.

However, the Indian reality seems different. Vincent says this very advantage of printmaking, its ability to be multiplied by the artist into limited editions, and therefore achieve a larger outreach, has become its disadvantage, due to the lack of a historical discourse around printmaking processes and the absence of information for people. “People assume they are ‘copies’ like photocopy or digital or offset copyprinting,” she says.

However, all is not lost. With the practice of printmaking taking a backseat for a long while, there has been a resurgence of interest in printmaking over the last four years. Waswo X Waswo has been instrumental in this move, along with a few others. In 2010-11, Art News and Views (Art Etc), a magazine published from Kolkata, ran three solid issues on printmaking practice, guest edited by Waswo, which showcased a lot of art and included interviews, discussions and critical essays on the historical and contemporary practices in printmaking.

Later in 2012, the planning and the display of the show ‘Between the Lines…’ at the Indian Habitat Centre in Delhi drew plenty of attention, as it garnered more viewership at NGMA Bangalore and NGMA Mumbai.The showcase ‘The Printed Picture – Four Centuries of Indian Printmaking’, curated by Paula Sengupta for Delhi Art Gallery provided an excellent view into the past of Indian printmaking. These shows encouraged many artists (old and young) to talk about and practice printmaking, and inspired several other shows, including the latest ‘Celebrating Indigenous Printmaking’, a special exhibition from the collections of NGMA in Delhi in 2014.

Talking about affordability, Waswo X Waswo says prints are not always as affordable as people imagine. “I have paid several lakh for certain prints in my collection. Tyeb Mehta’s lithograph of a bull, ‘Kultura’, sold at the Christie’s auction in 2013 at over Rs 27 lakh. A rare early etching by Akbar Padamsee or a rare lithograph by Ram Kumar can easily sell for more than one of their drawings. It depends on quality and period, provenance, condition, and all the other criteria that go into valuing any art form,” he says.

If you go by auction results, and what the galleries are beginning to ask, the prices are certainly going up, he adds. “When I first started collecting, etchings of even well-known Indian artists could be bought very inexpensively, for say Rs 6,000 or Rs 10,000. Now, I find even beginning prices for such works are at a minimum of Rs 60,000, and prices in lakhs are not uncommon. What is still a great thing to do is to buy from the young printmakers just developing their careers. Young artists like Soghra Khurasani, who makes marvellous woodcuts and etchings, or Subrat Behera, who is an imaginative and skilled lithographer. The woodcuts of the young artist Jagadeesh Tammineni are incredible, as are the multi-panel works of Maripelly Praveen Goud. There are still great bargains to be found among the young artists, and by supporting them, you help them continue their practice,” he adds.

Shah offers the reasons why printmaking is being relegated to the corner. The artwork itself is not important for the masses. All they want is a name. “Unlike Europe, where due to harsh weather, people spend long hours indoors, and therefore, they decorate and put up images that they like to see or associate with. In India, there is no such culture. Also, there is an obsession with canvas, which makes an average art lover rejects print because it is on paper. Nowadays for prints very good quality acid free, 100% rag contained papers are used, which would not turn yellow over many years. But this information has not reached the buyers,” she adds.

Shah explains the situation on the ground. In a mid-range city like Vadodara, known for its Fine Arts College, there are approximately 2,000 practicing artists. The city has seven or eight art centres that give space to young graduates to pursue their work. “Many of them have bought etching presses, but none of them are in working condition. Every year, if 16 students do masters in printmaking from Baroda College, I doubt if 10% will continue to do print after six months, in spite of availability of printing studios,” she says.

There is another trend. Shah says, to cater to the market, many artists pull out just one print, as buyers object to editions and some artists even do one print on canvas as buyers do not like paper. This makes me feel sad. I have nothing against canvas or one print, but if one conforms to demands so much, one will lose the freedom and creativity,” she adds.

The same is the case with an artist like Behera. “I find myself a little nervous if someone asks me, where is the original print? It’s a wrong question, because fine arts prints, as they are known collectively, are considered original works of art, even though they can exist in multiples,” he says.

Behera says, nowadays, etching, woodcut and digital mediums have become very popular. “Medium like lithographs is losing its glory because of the extensive technicality, which makes it time-consuming. To add to it, there is a lack of studios which provide facilities for lithography,” he says.

Every medium has its own character. It depends on the artist. “I always ask myself whether printmaking is totally a different art, or whether it’s not an art form. Then I find my answer. When I was a kid, I was not aware about anything. I just used to draw anything and everything, and everybody called me an artist. Now, when I use mediums like wooden engraving and lithographs for expressing my language, then why does everyone call me only a printmaker? Print processes are just mediums like others (oil, acrylic, etc),” he says. However, Behera agrees that things are changing. “Many young artists are now focusing on the image and new ideas. Many new art lovers like Waswo X Waswo (who is also an artist) and Amit Jain, have started collecting prints and are promoting graphics art,” he adds.

According to Venugopal, the understanding of printmaking as a fine art medium should start from a very young age among school students. “In the general school curriculum, there are courses on drawing and painting, along with the basic sculpture medium like clay modeling, along with craft. Basic printmaking like linocut and woodcut should be taught in a secondary school level. There should be more workshops and exhibitions to spread the awareness among the public and buyers of art. Both galleries and artists play a big role in this process,” he says.

Venugopal says there are artists practicing printmaking, but, most, including him, are finding it difficult to practice consistently. “There are hardly any platforms to show prints. Very few galleries are interested in promoting prints,” he says. There are, however, exceptions, such as the artist initiative programmes Print Portfolios, Print Exchanges, the recent Mini Print show in Goa and exhibitions like Bharat Bhavan Print Biennale, he adds.

Waswo X Waswo

Art collector and artist Waswo X Waswo is an American who has lived in India for the better part of 16 years. “I have a love of the country, and a deep engagement with its art scene,” He has well over 200 prints in his collection by well over 80 Indian artists. “The collection will eventually be donated to an educational institution, he says, “I’ve never collected for investment, though I must admit it has been satisfying to see the prices rise. I take this as meaning that Indian printmaking is gaining more awareness and status in art circles.”

His Facebook page, The Waswo X WaswoCollection of Indian Printmaking, has 3,286 likes.

“My collection focuses on traditional techniques, and does not include digital prints, though I know digital prints are becoming more and more common among young artists,” he says. Artists such as Viraj Naik and Gouri Vemula have perfected their skill in etchings to an astounding level. Certain lithographs by Ravikumar Kashi and Sachin Naik rival the best, and Moutushi, an artist from Kolkata, has been doing very interesting work with silkscreen that explores feminism and women’s identity, he says.

“I’m not sure if printmaking itself affects a person’s art, but it is a process that requires more forethought. Errors are not easily erased or painted over, so advance planning and skill in execution is a must. Printmaking is a difficult medium. It is much more difficult than drawing or even painting. There is tremendous and complex work involved,” he adds.

What does it means to be a print collector? “You need to have a mind that is willing to share, knowing that others will have the same print from an edition that you have, he says, adding, “If you need to feel like you have a one-of-a-kind object then printmaking is not for you. But for me, this element of holding one of a small edition is exciting. You feel like you’ve joined a select club. And for older prints, you might be holding the last surviving one.”

Waswo is not worried that digital printing is posing a threat to printmaking. “It is just a new technique, he says. “I don’t include it in my collection though, as many digital printmakers start from photo-based imagery. I wonder if it is a print or a manipulated digital photo. That line is blurry to me, I don't understand it yet. For this reason, I do not collect digital prints. I limit my collection to the traditional techniques of etching, drypoint, lithography, woodcut and silkscreen.”

Lina Vincent

Lina Vincent is an art historian and curator currently living and working in Goa. One of her largest interests is working with young artists and students of art. She belongs to a printmaking group ‘Trellis Artists Circle (TAC)’ in Bangalore. “We have produced limited edition calendars and planners over the last three years. My current projects include a large-scale exhibition on approaches to health and healing in India through a cultural perspective, and the inaugural exhibition for the Museum of Goa.

Vincent also curated an exhibition titled ‘Between the Lines: Identity, Place and Power’, of prints from the collection of Waswo. “It was a challenging exhibition to curate, because of the sheer number and diversity of works in Waswo’s collection. The process of curation was organic, and it seemed like the works found their places in dialogue with each other, with me as a mediator,” she says.

She adds that the responses in the three venues to the exhibition, and the accompanying book,were heartening, and due to the collaboration of artists and practitioners, the outreach workshops in the three cities touched a large number of the public, including children. “There were more than 80 artists represented, known and unknown, old and young, dead and practicing. Each one’s work spoke its own story and everyone who came in had something that was a favourite and that they could respond to,” she adds.

On the current trends, Vincent says there is a move towards experimentation with digital transfers, archival photography, combinations of laser printing with more gestural mediums. The matrix (or the surface material used to produce a print) is also becoming varied, from acrylic sheets, and aluminium to compressed mdf boards and steel. Some artists are using prints as a basis for animation.

“The complaint of printmakers that studio machinery is not available is being solved by low-cost presses being made in the country,” Vincent adds. “The practice is evolving and this is a good sign. Recently, a group of Mithila painters from the Mithila Art Institute in Madhubani were part of a workshop to produce linocut prints and screenprints for the very first time.These crossover experiments create the space for continually questioning and refreshing the established systems of a particular stream of art,” she says.

Vincent argues that Indian printmaking of today should not be segregated from the rest of contemporary art practices. It takes its roots from the same histories and influences, and continues to respond to the progress and change within India and the world, she says.

Compared to other visual arts like paining, for example, printmaking demands labour and precision. Vincent says these laborious techniques are part of the joy of the process – those particular lines in an acid-etching, or the grainy quality of an aquatint, the bold and organic pattern on a woodcut print cannot come from anything else,” she says. At the same time, like any other processes, this has also evolved and been experimented with. The old and the new go along quite well together, so much so that Vincent does not consider digital printing a threatas long as the distinction is made known to viewers and buyers.

Understanding of the printmaking process is the key, and Vincent requests art aficionados to take the time to understand a little about printmaking when they next get a chance.

Kavita Shah

Kavita Shah has done masters in printmaking from renowned Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda, and has many solo shows and has participated in international print biennale, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, X1 Triennale India, Small Format show, Chicago, Multiple Encounter, New York and many more. She was invited to print and show in Le Mois de L’estamps, Paris. After working with Robert Blackburn, she returned to India and started a print workshop in Baroda in 1999.

“Many techniques have been innovated since I completed my masters in 1985. Earlier, we had lithography with stone, etching, serigraph, woodcut, linocut in the graphics department. Now, there is paper-making, book-making, cyanotype, solar print, polymer print, plate lithography, photography (now attached to the print department), digital print on archival papers, video art, installations and many more.
Many interesting and faster techniques are being used and I must say the techno savvy younger students do some amazing work with them,” says Shah about the current state of printmaking in India.

Things are, of course, changing dramatically. Shah says the digital world and the social media have changed many things, including aesthetics among people. “Historically, prints were sold on the street leading to the Kali temple in Kolkata, (known as Kalighat prints). Now, they are sold on Amazon, Indiamart, Saffron Art and most artists have their personal websites or blogs. Now, the idea, image and concept are the important aspects,” she says.

Subrat Kumar Behera

Born in a small village called Nuagan in Odisha in 1988, Subrat Kumar Behera was interested in art since childhood. “I even used to steal money for art materials. Seeing my inclination, my father guided me to join a fine arts college. The thought excited me, as I wasn’t aware that I could take it up as a career. I owe a lot to my father for supporting me to chase my dream,” he says.

He joined the BK Collage of art and crafts, BBSR, in 2003. “There I started learning new things. Our two-year foundation course taught us all mediums, and my teachers suggested me to choose the painting department. This I refused, as I was interested to learn new techniques. Printmaking was the only department where I could experiment and learn new things,” he says. After two years, Behera took printmaking as his specialised subject and started working on every medium.

“Once I saw some light yellowish stone in a senior department. I asked what it was and came to know that those were limestones and the print medium was lithographs. I realised that this medium will suit my temperament and it will give me all the details that I want to put in my work. During that time, I did some lithographs, including colours,” he says.

When he joined the faculty of fine arts in Baroda for his higher studies, Behera started more experiments on lithographs, experimented with new materials and skill. “My purpose for taking printmaking as a specialised subject was to learn print techniques and utilised them in suitable places. So, beside editions work, I started experimenting with other work,” he says, adding, “Generally, I work on lithographs, woodcut and painting. My works speak the unfolding story I experience form my surrounding, my culture. When I start to visualise, I become my own master and order myself to compose what is my ideas to do,” he says.

He adds, “The thing with art history is that it is constantly in flux. In fact, the ways of using the same techniques have changed. Moreover, with the advent of new mediums and material, we get to see a highly eclectic use of material, medium and perception.”

Behera says an original print is a work of art created by hand and printed by hand, either by the artist or a professional assistant, from a piece of wood, plate, stone or stencil, that has been hand-created by the artist for the sole purpose of producing the desired image.

On digital printing taking over printmaking, he says there are pros and cons to everything. “I personally don’t feel that one should have a tunnelled vision regarding a specific medium. An artist uses a medium which is best suited for the work that he/she does. So, the question of whether it is a threat or not depends upon how an individual looks at digital printing and for what purposes is the technique of digital printing being used,” he adds.

Behera sees a lot of change as the medium grows. “Young artists are being attracted to the medium and there is a gradual change in the way it is being perceived. It will take some time for the medium to make its stronghold. But, from what I have seen and what I have experienced, the future looks bright,” he says.

VG Venugopal

VG Venugopal has been practicing with a variety of mediums for the last 15 years, and printmaking is one of them. After graduating in painting from Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts in Mysore, he did his post-graduation in printmaking from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru. “Though I am not into fulltime printmaking practice, the medium remains one of my favourites, just because of the possibilities of surface exploration and also for the joy of making it, Venugopal says.

His early works after the specialisation both in painting and printmaking were mainly influenced by the urban realities. “Bengaluru has been an inspiration as an outsider for me. Within the metropolitan atmosphere, I started relating myself to the issues like urbanisation, and socio-political and economic conditions as an outsider. My images are caught between complex situations and dilemmas of reality. The recent works are the result of my evolving alternative approaches in dealing with questions I ask myself about changing facets of human relations and sensibilities, environmental issues, struggle for identity in urban reality/context,” he says.

According to Venugopal, in general, among the conventional mediums, etching remains to be the major medium practiced by printmakers. “There are many young printmakers who explore large-size woodcuts. In the recent years, limited edition digital prints are also widely created and exhibited in major shows,” he says.

When it comes to printmaking, education remains an issue. “Many art enthusiasts don’t know the difference between ‘printing’ and ‘printmaking’. They consider them as just another ‘print’, which is not ‘unique’. But strangely, this doesn’t apply for sculptures, because these days many artists create sculptures in limited editions, just like prints,” he says.

When it comes to conventional printmaking techniques like etching, lithograph or woodcuts, the effort remains the same as earlier, says Venugopal. “It involves hard work, time, as well as certain health issues, because some processes involve use of chemicals like acids. On the other hand, we have new techniques evolved within the conventional mediums as well, like photo-etchings, image transfers, etc. In the recent years, digital prints have become part of the wide range of mediums with the evolution of technology and high quality digital printing machines,” he says.

Venugopal says Indian printmaking has not received the kind of recognition it deserves. “Many artists are finding it difficult to continue the practice consistently. The major hindrance is the lack of public studio setups. It is required to push the printmaking medium to another level. This is possible by a united effort by all sections of the art community, including artists, patrons, galleries, curators, etc. When we stop treating it as a secondary medium, it will flourish. I sincerely hope it will get the due recognition and support,” he says.

He argues that there should be more participation in printmaking-related activities like workshops for school students and the public. Along with the artists, the responsibility also lies on the government institutions to promote and encourage the medium by providing scholarships and fellowships, organising community events and international exhibitions on a regular basis,” he says.

The Science of Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting.

The process is capable of producing multiples, which are called original prints. Prints are not considered “copies”. This is because each print varies to an extent due to variables intrinsic to the printmaking process, and also because the imagery of a print is not simply a reproduction of pre-existing work, but rather is a unique image designed from the start to exist only as a print.

Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Common types of matrices include metal plates, usually copper or zinc, or polymer plates for engraving or etching; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings; and linoleum for linocuts. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process.

Printmaking techniques are generally divided into the following basic categories: Relief, where ink is applied to the original surface of the matrix; Intaglio, where ink is applied beneath the original surface of the matrix; Planographic, where the matrix retains its original surface, but is specially prepared and/or inked to allow for the transfer of the image; Stencil, where ink or paint is pressed through a prepared screen, including screenprinting and pochoir. There are also techniques like collagraphy, viscosity printing, and foil imaging.


Printmaking, Historically

Printmaking came to India when missionaries in Goa brought two presses in 1556

A Gujarati businessman at Mumbai imported a press from England in 1674-75

Printmaking reached Bengal via East India Company by early 18th Century; use of metal type casting printed Bengali grammar book

First volume of ‘Asiatick Researchers’ printed by East India Company Press with engravings from Indian Artists in 1789

Daniell brothers published engravings and etchings on ‘Views of Calcutta’ in early 19th Century; local artists added various details, reinforced etched lines with pen and introduced borders with titles inscribed in Bengali

Ramchand Roy was probably the first Indian engraver; native engravers evolved an indigenous style of preparing blocks

Woodcut became popular for rending illustrations by 1820

Single sheet display prints by 1860 became popular and Bat-tala district in Bengal printed them in large numbers; Bishwanath Dev setup the first printing press in Calcutta

By 1870, printing spread to Alwar and Punjab with prints of Sikh spiritual leaders, temples, Sikh battles, etc

Arrival of lithography helped flourish printing in Calcutta; lithographic press established in Calcutta in 1825

Behar Amateur Lithorgraphic press in Patna in 1828

Nawab Nasiruddin Haider of Oudh brought Archer to open the first Litho press and a book was made

Chromo lithography or colour lithography arrived in India in 1860; flooded the market with garish colour prints

Colour lithographs and large theatre posters printed in Litho press in 1880

Kalighat paintings were oleographed in Germany; establishment of art colleges in 1850 in Madras

School of Industrial Art, Calcutta in August 1854

JJ School of Art in Mumbai in March 1857

‘The birth of Shakuntala’, the first print in 1894, from Raja Ravi Varma’s press

Printmaking graduated into an autonomous art form in the 20th century

Prominent Bengal School followers worked in etching and woodcut, using the same theme as their paintings

Until 1940s, printmaking was practiced only by the Bengal school followers

Kanwal Krishna etchings in mid 1950s liberated printmaking from landscape and figure compositions

In the 1960s, printmaking was picked up at Fine Arts Faculty in MS University, Baroda

By the end of 1960s, Baroda Fine Arts produced fine etchers like Laxma Gaud and Dervak Dakoji

By the 1970s, printmaking became well-known and even painters like MF Husain, Akbar Padamsee, Ram Kumar and Tyeb Mehta did some lithographs

In the early 1990s, the Lalit Kala Academy set up many printmaking studios in Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Bhuvneshwar, Jaipur and Bharat Bhavan at Bhopal

(Courtesy: Mohile Parikh Center)

(The feature first appeared in PrintWeek India.)

Art’s Romance with Print

As the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, mounts a special exhibition of graphic prints, Dibyajyoti Sarma soaks in the history of Indian art and its romance with print

Art has always been the prerogative of the rich, a select few, not the common man. Raja Ravi Varma is credited to be the first to have brought art to the public sphere, when he started to print and sell his own works on the streets.

Today, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), established in 1954, seem to be doing the same thing, bringing art closer to people. While owning an art piece continues to be an expensive proposition, NGMA offers art enthusiasts a chance to appreciate art at close quarters and that too almost free of cost.

Based in Delhi, with regional centres in Mumbai and Bangalore, the main focus of NGMA is to create awareness and understanding among the public towards Indian art expressions. It also showcases international art and promotes modern and contemporary art abroad.

The comprehensive collection of NGMA comprises around 17,000 art objects – painting, drawing, sculpture, prints, photographs and installations, essentially by Indian artists, and currently represents works of about 2,000 artists from India and abroad.

Indigenous Printmaking

This September, the gallery mounted a special exhibition of graphic prints from the collection of NGMA. Titled, ‘Celebrating Indigenous Printmaking’, it is the first time that such an extensive show on printmaking is on display from the collection of NGMA, New Delhi, including many prints that have rarely been displayed before.

Prints are works of art which allow multiples in almost identical forms of the initial image, says Prof Rajeev Lochan, director, NGMA, New Delhi.

Lochan adds the current exhibition on printmaking showcases over 300 iconic prints of more than 100 eminent artists, mapping the history of printmaking from the colonial period till the contemporary times. “A special section has been dedicated to International prints from our own collections which were made in India,” he says.

According to Lochan, the exhibition, along with its accompanying texts, journals and printmaking tools on display, will benefit students, researchers and scholars to get an intimate understanding of printmaking practices, techniques and developments of the last two centuries in India.

“We are also organising printmaking workshops under the guidance of noted printmakers of India, along with regular screenings of documentary films on the art of printmaking in India,” he adds.

This exhibition is accompanied with the release of a set of three portfolios showcasing the prints of some of the iconic masters, among other memorabilia produced by NGMA, New Delhi.

History of Indian Printmaking

The history of printmaking in India from 1556 may be outlined as an era for this form of art gaining prominence with the Portuguese bringing in the printing press to Goa. “Seen in the international context, this form of art started making its mark in India almost a century after Gutenberg’s Bible,” says Lochan.

Noted artists such as Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) and William Daniell (1769-1837) made six volume series of aquatints titled as ‘Oriental Scenery’ in India. In 1786, the Daniells published an album of their monochrome etchings, ‘Twelve Views of Calcutta’. “This was the first time that the possibilities of single sheet printing were explored on a large scale in India. The first lithographic single sheet print was printed in 1822 by a French artist De Savignac,” Lochan adds.

The demand for printed images for calendars, books and other publications grew in the 1870s, which resulted in the increased popularity of single sheet display prints. Eventually, several art studios and printmaking presses flourished throughout India. Bat-tala, in the Shova Bazaar and Chitpur areas of Kolkata may be viewed as prominent centres for printmaking in the 19th century.

Munshi Newal Kishore founded the Newal Kishore Press and Book Depot in 1858, the first press in Lucknow. It is recognised as one of the oldest printing and publishing establishments in Asia where newspapers and books were often printed with stone blocks. The other major centres were set up in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, with Raja Ravi Varma establishing a lithographic press towards the end of the 19th century. The Ravi Varma Press gained prominence with him copying many of his religious and secular paintings and printing them as oleographs for mass consumption.

Modern Transformations

During the second decade of the 20th Century, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore and Samarendranath Tagore established a transformation of the role of printing as a creative medium. They collectively formulated the Bichitra Club to explore new forms of painting and printmaking with woodcuts and lithography. Another prominent student of this club was Mukul Chandra Dey, who was taken to America by Rabindranath Tagore in 1916 to learn the technique of etching from James Blinding Slone.

Printmaking became popular in India during 1921 with Nandalal Bose introducing it to Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan. From his visit to China and Japan in 1924, he brought back Chinese rubbings and Japanese colour woodcut prints. Benodebehari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij experimented with this medium from 1930s to 1940. Chittaprosad and Somnath Hore used linocuts and woodcuts to disseminate leftist ideologies, reformist concerns and socio-political critique of events like the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Tebhaga movement.

Similarly in Delhi, Jagmohan Chopra (founder of the Group 8), J Swaminathan, Anupam Sud, Paramjeet Singh, Manjit Bawa and Krishan Ahuja also made sizeable contributions to this field.

With the establishment of printing press by Kanwal Krishna and Devyani Krishna in 1955, a renewed energy was instilled in Delhi, outlining techniques of multi-coloured intaglio and collagraphy. Several young printmakers visited Paris to learn the technique of multi-coloured intaglio under the guidance of William Hayter (founder of the Atelier 17) and Krishna Reddy in early 1950.

KG Subramanyan effortlessly incorporated lithography, etching and serigraphy in his art practice. He transformed them into children’s book illustrations which were published during his stint as a teacher at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. Other prominent artists like N B Joglekar, Jyoti Bhatt, Jeram Patel, Shanti Dave, VR Patel, and PD Dhumal also made their important contributions in this field. After studying in Italy and at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York, Jyoti Bhatt joined the art faculty in Baroda in the 1960s, encouraging young printmakers to experiment in this area of visual expression.

Printmakers Today

From 1970 onwards, iconic printmakers such as Laxma Goud, Devraj Dakoji and DLN Reddy in Hyderabad, RM Palaniappan and RB Bhaskaran in Chennai and Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Atin Basak and Amitava Banerjee in Kolkata have made a significant mark in this area. The techniques of intaglio influenced painters and sculptors in Baroda during this time including Dattatray Apte, Naina Dalal, Jayant Parikh, Vijay Bagodi, Walter D’souza and Rini Dhumal to name a few.

“The works created by Robert Rauschenberg in Ahmedabad and the comprehensive collection of prints at NGMA, New Delhi reflect the diverse practices adopted by the printmakers all over the world, rendering it as one of the richest repositories of prints,” says Lochan.

Printmaking was rekindled with the establishment of the Indian Printmakers Guild in the 1990s, with members including Ananda Moy Banerji, Dattatraya Apte, Jayant Gajera, K.R. Subbanna, Bula Bhattacharya, Kavita Nayar, Kanchan Chander, Moti Zharotia, Sushanta Guha, Sukhvinder Singh, Subba Ghosh, and Shukla Sawant.

“The introduction of digital technology led to a significant transformation in the field of printmaking. In its experimental form, interesting visual vocabulary created by Jyoti Bhatt, Nataraj Sharma, Ravi Kashi, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Ranbir Kaleka, Baiju Parthan, Pushpamala N, Akbar Padamsee, Rameshwar Broota and Gogi Saroj Pal, to name a few has also been realised in this exhibition,” he adds.

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More from NGMA

While the gallery has a formidable collection of the development phase of modern Indian art, including the largest collection of Nandalal Bose works, it also has a state-of-the-art conservation laboratory to support its own collection.

The gallery also boasts of other facilities, such as, an art reference library for art lovers, an auditorium and 3 lecture halls. The gallery not only organises special exhibitions but also screens films, has an art-sketch club and runs summer and winter art workshops.

However, the highlights of the gallery’s attempt to bring art closer to the public is its publication programme, which includes printing and selling exhibition catalogs, books, monographs, portfolios, and posters. There are also coffee mugs and coasters, with art works printed on them. These memorabilia and souvenirs are available at the art shop located inside the gallery.

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About Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of a same piece, which is called a print. Each print produced is not considered a “copy” but rather is considered an “original”. This is because typically each print varies to an extent due to variables intrinsic to the printmaking process, and also because the imagery of a print is typically not simply a reproduction of another work but rather is often a unique image designed from the start to be expressed in a particular printmaking technique.

Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Common types of matrices include metal plates, usually copper or zinc, or polymer plates for engraving or etching; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings; and linoleum for linocuts. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screen printing process.

(This feature was first published in PrintWeek India, December 2014.)

Time for Top Newspaper Publishers to Accept the Reality

Newspapers in India are not dying and digital is not taking away their share of the pie. What ails the industry, however, is how the top publishers refuse to acknowledge the ensuing downward journey by rejecting the readership survey numbers. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar explains to Dibyajyoti Sarma why this is a worrying trend

As we discuss the importance of the Wan-Ifra expo and annual conference, to bring together the Indian newspaper industry on one platform, we inevitably move to the question why Indian newspaper publishers project such a grim picture of the reality. The fact is Indian newspapers, whether English or regional languages, are doing well, and there is no practical threat to their existence. Yet, industry leaders tend to paint a doomsday picture, as if the industry in India is on the verge of collapse.

The digital media is the usual culprit. The argument is that many more people have stopped reading printed newspapers as they have migrated to digital media, where they get all the information they need within the touchscreen of their smartphones. Again, television has always been a competition.

The proponents of this theory come armed with data, most from the US and some cases, Europe, where, they claim, the change has already happened. Recently, an online news portal ran a story how the future of the newspaper in the world is at the hands of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, who recently acquired The Washington Post (The same person who is credited with disrupting the traditional retail ecosystem.).

Again, the 7 August 2015 issue of Frontline carries a cover story on Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of The Guardian, who says, “…In my experience of it, you can be a better journalist in the digital world. Or, you can see it as the danger of being left behind if you didn’t do it. And there’s so much to learn and there will be so much competition in the digital world. So, certainly, the more I spent time editing, the more I felt I had to really get inside the digital world. If I’m going to be wrong about all this and if print is going to be here for a few years it’s fine, because we know how to do that.”

The sum and substance of this is that while the ground reality in India is different, we seem to be seeing the industry from the prism of an outside model. Is it possible to have a model exclusively for India, with data and figures that show that exact reality of the Indian newspaper industry?

Newspapers as Aspiration Objects

Of course, there is an ‘Indian model’, with data from agencies like Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and Indian Readership Survey (IRS). There are also other audits and surveys. It is just that people get excited by news from the US and they react to it, explains Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, media specialist and the author of the book, The Indian Media Business, which has sold over 10,000 copies.

According to Kohli-Khandekar, India is a very heterogeneous and very voluminous market and any model has to build that into itself.

“There are two factors that have kept India in a totally different growth trajectory,” says Kohli-Khandekar. “First is the concept of home delivery, which does not exist in most developed markets. In the US, for example, you have to go to a newsstand and buy a newspaper. The moment you start getting news online, you stop going to the newsstand.” This, of course, is not the case in India. We get the paper every morning, delivered to our doorstep.

The second factor is the fact that in India newspapers are objects of aspiration. “In India, there is a respect for the written word,” says Kohli-Khandekar. “A country which is just over 60% literate, in India, being able to read is itself a sign of achievement.” She illustrates this with an example of an uneducated working class man, and how he would react when he saw his children read a newspaper.

The long and short of this is newspapers will survive in India; it doesn’t matter what happens in the West. Literacy, electricity and penetration of media are some of the benchmarks through which we can gauge the market, says Kohli-Khandekar. “I once did a matrix, which looked at these factors – how literacy, or electricity can affect media penetration, and we found that the media that best works for India is the radio, which is cheap and does not need electricity, so to say,” she says. “Now, however, mobile phones have come on top as the media with biggest penetration, about 80 to 90%.”

In short, newspapers, with its written words and pictures have phenomenal possibilities. “My bet is television and newspapers in India are not going to die in a long, long time,” says Kohli-Khandekar. “We can argue in what format it would survive, but print will remain.”

Dealing with Digital

Why then is this kolaveri about digital onslaught? In the Frontline interview, Rusbridger explains, “Print is wonderful for some things. But the world we are in now is going to be very, very different, in which every aspect of life, not just media, is affected by digital. And it seems to me it’s inescapable. And so, to try and sort of cling on to this old world and pretend that somehow journalism is going to be exempt from this revolution seems to me not a wise way to think about the future.”

Rusbridger is right of course. Kohli-Khandekar argues that while newspaper publishers are screaming hoarse about digital, going online, they have actually done precious little to exploit the medium.

“Talking about newspapers, what are they actually doing in the digital space?” Ask Kohli-Khandekar. Apart from a handful of them, most players have not yet scratched the surface. Just putting up news stories online is not enough. In a dynamic platform like online media, there needs to be a constant engagement, which is certainly lacking in most online news portals. “It’s a long process,” says Kohli-Khandekar. “The newspapers should have started experimenting with the digital space some 10 years ago. For example, television is doing much better in digital than newspapers.”

The potential is enormous. For example, when online, looking for news, a newspaper reader usually gravitates towards the website of the said newspaper. A cursory look at Facebook reveals that while The Times of India page has 7,211,475 ‘likes’, the web-only news portal Firstpost has only 637,747 ‘likes’.

“I think the newspaper publishers have not yet realised how big this could become and how they should approach the space much more aggressively. For example, how many of the players play up their statistics for their websites, the way they do for their newspapers. They are getting traffic, but they are not marketing it enough,” she says.

There are too much data in the digital space. In this context, it is important to figure out how a newspaper publisher is going to build its brand. Newspapers like The Guardian and The Economist are the examples how old brands reinvented themselves in the digital space. And, they started more than 10 years back. These sites are independent entities, not a digital version of the printed product. This is the key, and Indian media houses are yet to find the way.

Kohli-Khandekar agrees that there are operational issues. After all, the Indian newspaper industry is used to work in a certain way. “And also, there are issues of focus. If you are getting the chunk of your revenue from one product, which is print, you will definitely focus on that,” she says.

Thus, we return to the earlier issue. Printed newspapers are doing well. This is one of the reasons why despite the fact that while all newspaper houses have online presence they have done nothing much to exploit the potential of the digital space.

Monetising an online product may be another issue. India, as yet, has not been able to create a market for paid digital content.

The most important reason, however, is the ad revenue. While brands may be flirting with the digital space, newspapers continue to bag more than 40% of total ad spending by the brands. This is the biggest after television, and the numbers are actually very good. On the other hand, digital accounts for more or less 10% of the total ad spending.

So, there is no crisis. Kohli-Khandekar says the Indian newspaper industry is a mature market. While there has been sustained growth in the past few years, sooner or later, the market is going to plateau. In this scenario, a new newspaper may find it hard to sustain, as the market leaders will try all their might to maintain their top position.

Number Games

This brings us to the issues of transparency in the market. Among the major players, both in English and in the regional languages, who is the No 1? What are the circulation figures? What are the readership figures?

The situation, at best, is despairing. Kohli-Khandekar says the market leaders find it very hard to deal with falling numbers. Everyone wants growth. But if it does not happen, they try to suppress the results. This is a trend, she says, will have adverse affect on the industry, as it stops the decision-makers from seeing the way the industry is mutating in the last couple of years.

“There is no respect for what the metrics mean,” says Kohli-Khandekar. “Take for example the circulation figures published by ABC. Everyone jumps in and out of the figures. If the figures are good, they will publicise it, if not, they will ignore it.”

Kohli-Khandekar says big newspaper houses have ignored the last few readership surveys. They are still using the old figures as currency to attract advertisers. This is simply because big players refuse to accept even a mild change in their figures.

She argues that the metrics, the surveys and audits are not there to serve the interest of the market leaders, but to reveal the state of the market. This is something that is not happening the way it should. She says even when surveys are authentic and foolproof, major players seem to reject them simply because the numbers do not reveal their expectations. She gives the example of IRS (Indian Readership Survey) 2013. “It was well done. It was statistically sound, the samplings were better, and the security was better so that nobody could fudge the data. Yet, the newspaper houses refused to accept the results citing statistical anomalies,” she says. Then there was an audit, which cleared the survey. Yet, newspaper publishers refused to accept it.

“I think they are not accepting the results because the data is now starting to show stagnation in the large categories,” argues Kohli-Khandekar.

Within this scenario, media agencies and ad agencies have come to play an important role. “Around 80% of the total newspaper revenue comes from ads and you are saying that you not going to accept the currency on which advertisers work? How can this work?” asks Kohli-Khandekar, adding, “It is dangerous when an industry refuses to accept the ground realities. Instead of focusing on the numbers, the newspaper houses should focus on the challenges.”

While the leaders refuse to wake up to the reality, the smaller newspapers want the data. They are the challengers. They want the IRS numbers to see how they are doing. Kohli-Khandekar says the big players’ refusal to back robust metrics is pulling the industry down. “This is the real crisis, not the internet,” she adds.


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Vanita Kohli-Khandekar Explains/

The Tragedy of Metrics

Most publishers who are part of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC), which releases readership numbers, have been up in arms over a re-hauled readership survey that was published two years ago. The whole issue was settled through an audit, revalidation and finally an increase in sample size by the MRUC in April 2015.

However, most publishers are still sulking about losing their ranking in the annual ranking. Meanwhile, advertisers - after missing the metrics for two years - are moving on to TV, digital and other media. Much of the trouble, say industry experts inside the system, stems from publishers’ ego and some short-term tactical thinking. The last acceptable readership survey had shown stagnation in English print. The downward journey that print media in the rest of the world is going through, had begun in the profitable, growing Indian market. In the absence of current figures, advertisers use historical numbers. By stalling the readership survey, the top publishers can maintain the status quo on rankings.

Saving the Readership Survey

The readership growth of English print had slowed down to less than 1% in IRS 2012. Some top newspapers showed marginal declines. In the absence of current data, the advertisers, base spends on historical data, so the established ranking holds. However, smaller publishers, beyond the top 2-3 ranks, need readership to negotiate for better ad rates. The whole thing is a tussle between big and small publishers.

That is ironical. The MRUC was set up in 1994 to shake off the dominance of large papers in the erstwhile National Readership Survey. Now, it is more representative of all users - big and small publishers, advertisers and agencies. In 2009, it joined hands with the Audit Bureau of Circulations to overhaul the survey. The new IRS was released in January 2014. It showed that total readership was down from 353 million to 281 million people (restated to 301 million) and many biggies were displaced in the ranking. That is when all hell broke loose.

The Indian Newspaper Society denounced the survey. Dainik Bhaskar got a stay order on it. However, a 15-member revalidation committee cleared it. Using IRS 2013, along with one round of fieldwork from 2014, the MRUC released IRS 2014 this year. But, publishers still refuse to accept it. Their complaint? The data is dated, tamperable and the sample size is small.

Then the MRUC board decided to increase the sample from 235,000 to 300,000.

(Excerpted from the Business Standard, where Vanita Kohli-Khandekar publishes her columns.)

(This feature was first published in PrintWeek India.)

OUP India going to school

The university press, after 103 years in India, has found a way to leverage digital technologies to add value to print resources. Ranjan Kaul, managing director, Oxford University Press India, explains to Dibyajyoti Sarma

How is the Oxford University Press (OUP) India, with a legacy of 103 years in the country, reinventing itself within the changing publishing scenarios? The answer is simple: By exploring new markets, such as adult ELT and assessments, while embracing technology.

“We have been in all fields of learning, from pre-primary school material to academic research,” says Ranjan Kaul, managing director, Oxford University Press India. “Besides, OUP is known for its dictionaries.”

While continuing to strengthen these programmes, OUP has now identified adult English language teaching (ELT) as a new area of publishing.

According to Kaul, the idea is to meet the aspirations of the English language learners, people who may or may not have had an English-medium education but who are now struggling to get jobs, because of their deficiencies in English. It also includes professionals, who may have the technical skills, but lack in the proficiency of the language.

For this, OUP has introduced comprehensive self-learning materials, including dictionaries and grammar books, using the bilingual medium. “English remains the language of business in India. The market in the segment is growing and we saw a requirement,” says Kaul.

He adds that bilingual content enables an aspirant who has completed his education in a local language to teach himself English, via his own language.

Kaul shows us some bilingual books, in Bangla and Hindi. He says there are plans to publish these bilingual materials in 12 languages.

This Indian aspiration to learn English post conventional education, however, is not new. There are training institutes, good or bad, in every corner of the country, which claim to teach aspirants English in a matter of days. Apart from these rudimentary set-ups in small towns, there are also organisations in the metro cities, which offer similar services of teaching English to adult, educated aspirants.

OUP is aware of the market dynamics and over the years it has aligned itself with the reality of the situation. “Apart from publishing self-learning materials focusing on the aspiration of the learner, we are also approaching the language training schools. We are talking to them for a possible partnership,” says Kaul, adding, “The problem is most of these institutions do not have even qualified teachers. So, we will offer to train the teachers, besides providing them the material and the teaching tools. If they can do a good job, we can look at the probability of endorsing them.”

“So, there is another market, training English language teachers, we are interested in. We have the resources and the knowhow,” adds Kaul. He says OUP India on an annual basis conducts 800-1,000 teacher training workshops on all subjects, including ELT.”

The use of bilingual content to teach English as a second language may sound surprising to many, but, as Kaul explains, OUP India has had recent success with its bilingual dictionaries. One of OUP’s mainstays over the years has been its dictionaries. In the recent years, with the availability of dictionaries in laptops and mobiles, the sale of English dictionaries is on the decline globally. By contrast, the bilingual dictionaries that OUP India publishes in all major Indian languages are doing rather well. This opened up the door for the new venture. “Besides, we publish a lot of English language teaching material in the UK, for the second language adult learning market. Those have been tried and tested, and they deliver results,” Kaul adds.

Teaching and Learning

Another new area that OUP is exploring is providing teaching aids in the school segment, with a focus on digital. “We are preparing ourselves for digital,” says Kaul. “In India, we are 103 years old. About 70% of our turnover comes from the school segment. We are familiar with the schools market, what the opportunities are, what the schools are looking for. In the recent years, a lot of technology companies came in with some kind of digital solution. Most of them were far from satisfactory. So, some schools approached us, asking if we wanted to do it.”

The major problem as regards to primary school education is that there is no appropriate content and there is no standard. Kaul says in the last two-three years, OUP is providing print materials and other digital content as teaching aids, to support print, and to support teaching in the classroom. “Print material is still the focus, which digital content is being offered as an additional aid,” adds Kaul.

After the success with the teachers, the schools are now asking OUP India if they can provide digital content for the students as well, for devices. This, the company can, but according to Kaul, this digital content is not going to be a substitute for print, the actual books in the syllabus. “The materials we provide have additional interactivity, to enhance learning, as a learning aid,” says Kaul.

In this area, the other important aspect OUP India is working on is student evaluation in a classroom setting. “We are looking at measuring learning outcomes. Are the marks a teacher gives at the end of the class adequate to measure performance? So, we are also developing assessments, which can measure skills,” Kaul says.

The project is called Oxford Achiever, an online assessment module which students follow concurrent with the regular classroom teaching and learning. It has been running successfully in several schools in Hong Kong, and OUP India has customised it to Indian requirement.

“With this, we will be able to assess classroom teaching, and it is diagnostic. Based on the students’ response, we identify the areas of weakness and offer suggestions how the students can improve their abilities in a particular subject. The report goes to the teachers as well, so the teacher is also in the loop,” Kaul explains.

“We did a pilot in seven-eight schools, out of which five said they wanted to continue this. This is encouraging and we will be launching the complete assessment solution in a few months,” he says, adding that the focus is not necessarily on elite city schools, but also B-category schools and schools in tier-two, and -three cities.

Making Digital Work for Print

We come to the same old question that we keep asking the print leaders: Is the digital media making print obsolete? Kaul answers in negative. He says he does not see digital technology replacing print in the near future. He gives the example of the UK, where print is still relevant. In the content of school education, he gives the example of the international schools, where books are still being used despite the prevalence of all sorts of digital teaching-learning tools.

“Digital can certainly aid and enhance the teaching-learning process.” Kaul explains. “Over the years, the learning methods have changed and children have become visual learners. It is a positive in terms of pedagogy. So, teachers now can use not only the blackboard, but also a digital screen to explain a difficult concept.”

He gives the example of the heart. It is difficult to explain the workings of a heart through a picture. Now, a teacher can show the students how the heart works with the help of an animation.

“We are now using an integrated print and digital workflow,” says Kaul, “Now, when we conceive a course, we decide what will go in digital and what will go in print. Everything is conceptualised at the initial stage.”

OUP uses a technology called Ariel, wherein if a student scans a picture in his printed book with a smartphone, it leads him to an animated version of the picture on the phone. “We are linking a lot of this kind of learning objects to print. So, it is adding value to print,” he says.

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OUP India

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford and has played a key role in the University's work since its first published work in 1586. It is the largest and most successful university press in the world with offices in fifty countries and publishes more than 6,000 new resources a year across the academic and educational spectrum.

From its first locally published book in 1912, OUP India it has expanded its output to include a wide range of educational and academic resources - from scholarly works and higher education textbooks to school courses, bilingual dictionaries, and digital resources for teaching-learning.

In India, the company has three broad divisions – school education, higher education and global academic. As the names imply, they cater to these specific markets.

Fighting Piracy

Piracy is a major issue among publishers. Kaul says even OUP India faces the threats of piracy, but not to the extent the publishers of best-selling trade books, where piracy is more rampant. “Piracy in the institutional framework is limited in India, as booksellers in India do not keep pirated books in their stores” says Kaul.

He adds that more than India, piracy is far more rampant in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. “In India, the situation is not that bad, as police are now more aware of the copyright laws, and publishers themselves can take legal action,” he concludes.


About Ranjan Kaul

Ranjan Kaul, managing director, Oxford University Press, India, has over three decades of publishing experience and has held senior editorial and management positions in leading publishing companies in India. A post-graduate in English Literature from the University of Delhi, he also holds an Engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. Ranjan writes and paints in his spare time and is the author of Through the Forest, Darkly, a work of fiction published by Hachette.

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Rapid fire with Ranjan Kaul

What is the best thing you like about OUP?
Its undying commitment to education, innovation and quality.

What you like most about Indian publishing industry?
Its commitment to education and literacy.

What according to you is lacking in the industry?
Greater awareness of piracy and copyright issues.

Your predications for the next five years?
The future certainly looks very bright

OUP in numbers
Number of books (units) published so far: 23 million
Number of employees: Approximately 750
Number of printers associated with OUP India: 10 to 12

(This feature was first published in PrintWeek India, 2015.)

Judging Books by Their Covers in 2015

Sometimes competition can be a good thing; it can lead to innovation. Take the publishing industry, for example. As physical books face mounting competition from their digital counterparts (ebooks), publishers are finding ways to make physical books look more enticing. Content is one thing, but printed books are now being marketed as collector’s items. The ‘Meerut model’ of cheap pulp publication, where you buy a cheaply printed book, read it and sell in the ‘raddi’, is now passé. Indian book printers (especially in English language publication) are now waking up to the international standards of book printing, be it the choice of paper size and weight, or how the book is bound and presented, including the choice of fonts and colour.

The Western trend of printing a Collectors’ Edition of a bestseller is also catching on. For example, in 2013, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Amitav Ghosh’s landmark novel, The Shadow Lines, Penguin India printed a limited Collectors’ Edition, which came in a brand new cover and a slip case.

There have also been attempts to market a book as part of a multimedia collection. For example, music composer Shantanu Moitra’s book, On the Wings of Music: A Journey, published by HarperCollins India in 2014, also comes with a compact disc of songs composed by Moitra.

Yet, content aside, the most important aspect of a book remains the cover. It is the first thing a reader notices, whether in a bookshop or in an online retail store. Also, a good book needs a good cover to differentiate it from the other books in the market. The cover is the window to the interiors of a book.

In case of a physical book, the cover should not only look good, it should also have great tactile appeal, in terms of the paper used, and so on.

While we cannot honestly conclude that book printing in India as a whole has reach the statures where it can compete with the international standards, there are individual big-name players who are producing consistently stellar works, both in terms of quality production and innovation. Thus, it is not a surprise that printers like Replika Press, Repro India, and Thomson Press, beside local customers, have also attracted a sizable global customer base.

Closer home, in the last few years, a reasonably young publishing house, Aleph Book Company, helmed by David Davidar, has produced books with striking production value, from the size of the books to ingenious cover arts to selection of quality paper, not only for paperback and dust covers, but also the paper for inside pages. The credit for this also must go to Haryana-based Replika Press, which, over the years, has shown commitment to consistent quality. Most books from Aleph are printed by Replika.

While he stresses on the fact that content is the most important aspect of a book, especially for a publisher of children’s books, Apurv Garg, director, Brijbasi Art Press, one of the country’s biggest publishers of children’s books, reiterates that the cover of a book is commercially the most important aspect of the book. So, care must be taken to make it eye-catching. “We use various finishes, including glitters, abrasive varnish, foil (sparkle or regular), matt and gloss covers or spot UV, holographic lamination, emboss and de-emboss, die-cuts, fluorescent and sometimes combinations of this,” says Garg.

He adds, “We are sure of our content, and to be sure the child picks up the correct book for him/her, we make the covers attractive so they don’t miss out the best content!”

This seems to be the general consensus among publishers and printers. A good book must have a good cover.

We talked to the people in the know about book covers they liked the best in 2014.

Among international titles, Divya Dubey, publisher of Earth Lamp Journal, an online literary magazine, likes the cover of Japanese master Haruki Murakami’s The Strange Library, for its “minimalist, realistic, fantastic cover.”

Among Indian titles, Dubey likes Mirza Waheed’s second novel set in the turbulent times in Kashmir, The Book of Gold Leaves, which, Dubey says, “is eye-catching without being too loud.” Interestingly, the cover image is a detail from the artwork by the author’s great-grandfather Mirza Ali. The book has been published by Penguin India.

Dubey also likes the 20th Anniversary Edition of Vikram Seth’s The Suitable Boy, published by Aleph, which features three parrots in flight against a worn out old wall, which according to Dubey, is “very appealing.” The cover photograph was by Varanasi-based photographer Laurent Goldstein.

Aleph also published Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s novel on the Santhal community in Jharkand, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey. Printed by Replika, the cover in yellow and green, inspired by calligraphy strokes, is also one of the most artfully designed covers printed last year.

Shekhar, the author of the book, on the other hand, likes the cover of Kathmandu-based author Prawin Adhikari’s collection of stories, The Vanishing Act. “Of the books I read in 2014, I found the cover of this book quite intriguing,” says Shekhar. “The cover shows a person drowning in water and struggling for life. Perhaps this drowning is the vanishing act the author wishes to tell us about. Perhaps it is something else. Many questions arose in my mind after I saw this cover.”

Published by Rupa, the cover was designed by Maithili Doshi Aphale.

Pune-based author Sucharita Dutta-Asane likes the cover of Kaushik Barua’s novel Wind Horse, published by HarperCollins. “The cover appealed to me for aesthetic and thematic reasons,” says Dutta-Asane. “The book is about a small group of Tibetans who set up an armed resistance against their occupiers. It is about a war that is still going on, in minds and on the ground too. Obviously, the theme involves a degree of bleakness. The cover captures and presents this bleakness and is very evocative. The title in red against this bleak background resonates with the book’s central theme and images--of a mythical hope countered by the gloom of reality.”

(This feature was first published in PrintWeek India, 10 April 2015.)

A Book Fair to Promote Reading Habits

The annual New Delhi World Book Fair is doing all it can to promotes books in India. Dibyajyoti Sarma soaks in the experience during the 24th edition of the event, which was held from 9-17 January 2016 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Talking about the annual New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), we had written in these pages how it would be unfair to compare NDWBF to Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF), the world’s biggest book event. The difference is stark and simple. The FBF is essentially a marketplace for publishers whereas NDWBF is about celebrating books, in an effort to inculcate reading habits among the masses.

In this sense, NDWBF is important. Organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), India, the government-backed event is the country’s biggest book fair (where actual books are in focus, not the authors, unlike the Lit Fests we are seeing in every other city), with more than 1,800 stalls in around 36,000 sq/mt area, showcasing books from all over the world, in all languages, beside English and the Indian languages.

When it comes to business of books, the country seems to be doing well. According to the India Book Market Report released by Nielsen during the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2015, the value of the print book market in India, including book imports, is USD 3.9 billion. This puts India in the position of being the second largest English-language book market in the world. Even local language markets are doing well, as is evident with the number of publishing houses coming up and their extensive catalogues.

The need of the hour, now, is to find readers/buyers for these books, beyond the online retail sites.

India is a country of young people. In the recent years, despite the rise of social media and smartphones, the young generation has shown a healthy interest in books. It’s time they got a platform where their interests can be sustained.

NBT seems to be working towards this goal. In a bid to attract young readers, especially school/college students, this year, NBT rescheduled the dates of the book fair from the usual February to January. The 24th edition of the book fair was held from 9-17 January 2016 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

The Fair was inaugurated on 9 January 2016 by Union minister for human resource development Smriti Zubin Irani. “Today we not only celebrate the exponential growth of the publishing business both in India and China but also the human interest in it,” Irani said. She also appreciated the efforts of NBT in creating a platform for young writers to publish their works.

Popular Kannada author SL Bhyrappa was the guest of honour at the function.

This year, China was the Guest of Honour Country at NDWBF. On the occasion, Sun Shoushan, vice-minister of SAPPFRT, People’s Republic of China, said, “India is an amazing country with a profound and diversified culture. I am amazed by the rapid development of India, which seems to be at a colourful corridor that connects its glorious past with the present.”

For the Public

On the first weekend of the show, when PrintWeek India visited the Fair, the ground was chockablock with visitors giving it an air of an actual fair, so much so that we had to wait for half-an-hour at the entrance. There was seriousness, but there was also a sense of bonhomie with groups of youngsters, families with children in tow, dour older men looking for that specific book, schoolgirls looking for their Harry Potters, hopping from one stall to another.

There was something for everyone. From Hindi translation of foreign language books to designer hardbound editions of classic English works (It appears to be a new trend where publishers pick up classic texts which are in public domain and print them with enticing new designs. Look at how many different publishers have their own collections of Shakespeare’s works!), from specialised publishers like Motilal Banarsidass and Gita Press to stalls featuring antique books, to all the leading Indian publishers, especially in Hindi and English, to fledgling ventures offering self-publishing avenues to aspiring authors, like Chennai’s Notion Press. For the spiritual-minded, there was also a host of options.

As young readers are the special focus of the book fair and as NBT is one of the largest publishers of children books in India, there was a special pavilion dedicated to children books. The pavilion also hosted several activities from schoolchildren, like drawing competition, storytelling sessions, skits, besides showcasing books.

The theme of NDWBF 2016 was ‘Vividh Bharat’, showcasing the country’s cultural legacy. The theme pavilion featured a collection of Indian writing from the times of bhojpatra to the modern day. For those with less patience for the written word, there were also performances of several classic works, like Jaidev’s Geet Govinda, Bhavabhuti’s Malati Madhavam and the Sindhi classic Shah Jo Risalo.

Chinese Books Steal the Show

This year, the most impressive aspect of the New Delhi World Book Fair was the pavilion featuring the Guest of Honour Country China. In the recent years, China has gone all way out to promote its books outside; the pavilion was the evidence how serious the country is in promotion. The sprawling and aesthetically designed pavilion had more than 5,000 titles in English, Chinese and Hindi. Also at hand were about 255 delegates from 81 publishing houses, including internally acclaimed authors such as Mai Jia (Decoded, In the Dark) and Lan Lan (Life with a Smile).

When it comes to books and printing, China has a unique history. After all, it is the country where paper was invented. While the rest of the world picked up the tradition of printing post-Gutenberg’s invention, and followed up with modern technology, China’s culture of print still has an indelible connection to the country’s indigenous print technologies. This is evident in how Chinese books are designed and printed. Business and literature aside, the Chinese showcase at NDWBF was a veritable masterclass in design and printing. Each of the books was an object of art in itself. As one visitor remarked, “I do not recognise the Chinese logographic script, but the books are so beautiful to look at.”

There was also a diorama representing the traditional Chinese printmaking and a photo exhibition celebrating China-India cultural contacts, from the times of Buddha to Dwarkanath Kotnis.

For Publishers

Besides the regular Authors’ Corner events, where authors with new books interacted with the readers, the book fair also featured the two regular trade events, CEOSpeak and New Delhi Rights Table. The 4th edition of the New Delhi Rights Table, which gives Indian publishers an opportunity to sell translation rights of local language books to foreign publishers, saw 70 participants from countries like Egypt, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the US, among others.

Meanwhile, at the fair ground, German Book Office, New Delhi, the South Asia node of the Frankfurt Book Fair, hosted the third edition of Globalocal Talk, with its focus on the international book market. The session allowed for an insider’s view of publishing markets like France, China, Germany, and the UK, which was shared among a full house audience of publishers, distributors, agents and authors.

(This feature was first published in PrintWeek India, 10 February 2016.)

Spotlight on printed words at the Oscars 2016

A large number of movies celebrated at this year’s Oscar started their lives as books. Dibyajyoti Sarma looks at the written words behind the screen success

This year, the Academy Award for Best Picture went to a film with a newspaper at its heart – Spotlight. This is the first time a film centred on a newspaper has won the award. Both Citizen Kane (1941) and All the President’s Men (1976) failed to win the coveted prize.

Spotlight tells the story of a long investigation by a group of journalists from Boston Globe, the Spotlight team, to uncover the systemic child abuse in the Catholic Church.

Aside from Spotlight, a number of Oscar winners this year started out as humble books. Here are some examples.

The Revenant
Michael Punke’s The Revenant (2002) tells the real-life story of Hugh Glass (played by DiCaprio), a far trapper, in Rocky Mountains in 1823, where a grizzly bear attacks him and then his men abandon him. Glass survives, fuelled by his passion for revenge, and travels 3,000 mile across the harsh American frontier, to find the men who betrayed him.

Director Alejandro G Iñárritu turns the film into primal tale of survival, which may not reflect the emotional density of the books, but it is visceral, to say the least.

Carol
Patricia Highsmith named the book The Price of Salt, later republished as Carol. The 1952 novel is a dazzling lesbian romance, which was a daring act during the time of sexual repression, especially since it has a happy ending.

Todd Haynes’s film, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, observes the scandalous romance from the equivalent of a cinematic close-up, making it one of the most romantic movies ever made.

Brooklyn
Irish master Colm Tóibín is one of the most celebrated writers working today, and the 2009 novel won a Costa Award. The book tells the story of a young Irish immigrant (Saoirse Ronan) in America, and how she falls in love and how she has to return and has to choose between two countries and two lovers.

John Crowley’s film version retains the power of Tóibín’s calm, unhurried tone in a journey from innocence to acceptance.

The Martian
Andy Weir published The Martian himself in 2011. When the sale picked up, it was re-released in 2014. The story follows Mark Watney, stranded alone on Mars in 2035, who must improvise in order to survive. The book has been praised for its realistic description of the future technologies.

Ridley Scott made the movie as much realistic as possible, with no small help from NASA itself.

Room
Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue’s novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010, among other awards. This is a harrowing story of a five-year-old boy and his abused and captive mother, told with finesse and literary perfection.

Lenny Abrahamson’s film keeps the focus on the mother-son duo (played by Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay) and the film works chiefly due to the performance of these two actors. No wonder, Larson took home the Best Actress Oscar.

The Big Short
Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (2010) is about the build-up of the housing and credit bubble during the 2000s. The book describes several key players in the creation of the credit default swap market, who ended up profiting from the financial crisis of 2007-08.

The star-studded film works mainly because the director Adam McKay infuses enough drama and eccentricities while at the time explaining the intricacies of the financial market.

The Danish Girl
In a year when former Olympic gold medallist Bruce Jenner reinvented herself as Caitlyn Jenner, the story of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery, does not sound exciting, but it is. In The Danish Girl (2000), David Ebershoff attempts a fictionalised account of Elbe’s inner life, and he has been successful in most parts, with critics calling it fascinating and humane.

Tom Hooper’s film has been praised for the acting of Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, and Alicia Vikander as his wife (she won an Oscar.), but has been criticised otherwise, as all gloss, without real human emotion.

This book, today being the World Wildlife Day. Valmik Tha...

This book, today being the World Wildlife Day. Valmik Thapar, Wildfire: The Splendours of India’s Animal Kingdom, Aleph Book Company, 2014. A treasure with such visual pleasures. On a bad day, pick up the book and flip through its pages and you are elsewhere. Such varieties of pictures; such stories of adventure. Such a ravishing production printed at Lustra Print Process. A book for the ages. (The other picture, featured inside the book, is of the Indian rhinoceros, in, where else, our own Kaziranga.)

I have been hearing very good reports about ‘Aligarh’ fro...

I have been hearing very good reports about ‘Aligarh’ from the community. Then a friend drops a message over the weekend, “It could happen to you.” Of course, in another place and time, it could. Then I ask him, how was the film, anyway. He says, “Disturbing.” I think it is an apt response. It ought to be disturbing.