20 January,2009 09:28 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
Vikas Swarup's book Q&A, rechristened after Danny Boyle's flick Slumdog Millionaire, has been selling like hot cakes in Pune; book stores in the city run out of stock
PREVIOUSLY published as Q&A, the reincarnation of the same book Slumdog Millionaire has been flying off the shelves in all 14 shops in the city. After the film bagged the Golden Globe Awards, the book has created immense curiosity among readers.
Superhit
Slumdog Millionaire, the film jumped into the North American Top Ten list and proved to be a gross puller of $59,00,000 over the January 16-18 weekend alone.
Directed by Danny Boyle, the film has stars like Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto and Saurabh Shukla. Music director A R Rahman also won the prestigious Golden Globe award of the film.
Described as a lively novel by many newspapers in the west, it is a story of a tiffin boy Ram Mohammad Thomas, who answers all 12 questions correctly on a television reality show and wins Rs 2 crore.
u00a0
Interesting read
The book is brimming with a range of diverse situations the story jumps from chaotic comedy to heart-stopping tragedy, to a tear-inducing joy of modern India.
u00a0
Satish Vichare, assistant manager, India Book Distributors (Bombay) Ltd, said, "Earlier, we sold copies in 100s, but now the stock has exhausted. We are demanding over a thousand copies from Transworld Publishers in London and it is expected to reach us in the next few days."
Increase in sale
Deccan Gymkhana-based Popular Book House sold eight copies on Saturday alone. It's the same situation for International Book Service and Utkarsha Book Shop.
At Landmark Book Stall in Camp, store manager, Meera Mohan said, "The book was doing well even before the film bagged the Golden Globe awards.
Its author, Vikas Swarup, had made a public reading at our Bangalore and Chennai outlets in 2005. We are now out of stock and have ordered for some more copies."
Menneys Book Sellers was the only place where the book was available. "Over 100 copies have been sold and we have just received the stock," said Mathew Chells. Chells himself read the book and likes it. "It has a very interesting narrative style," he said.
However, it's the guys on the footpath who are raking in the moolah the most. Anand Solanki, a footpath bookseller on Ambedkar Road informed that he sold some 68 copies in past six days and had run out of stock.
Ram Mahashabde, an ardent book lover finds the book nice for many things. "I like the realism in the book. I liked the way the author knits the huge gap between the slum life and the glamorous TV show," he said.
Bestseller
Q&A was an international bestseller and has been translated into 35 languages so far. Vikas Swarup's latest book Six Suspects also been finalised for a film. Q&A's 382-page paperback edition is being sold at Rs 268.
