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Pramod Kapoor

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Pramod Kapoor
Born1953
NationalityIndian
EducationBanaras Hindu University
Occupation(s)Publisher, author
Known forFounderof Roli Books
Notable work
  • Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography
  • 1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny; Last War of Independence
AwardsChevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (2016)

Pramod Kapoor (born 1953), is an Indian publisher, who in 1978 founded Roli Books, a publishing company that prints books pertaining to Indian heritage. In 2016, for his contributions to publishing, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

Early life and education

Pramod Kapoor was born in 1953 in Jorasanko, Kolkata district of India, into a family associated with the distribution of paper in Uttar Pradesh.[1] He was inspired at the age of 10-years when in 1963, he saw a portrait of Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books.[2] During his college years he worked for his brother, who owned a printing press.[1]

Career

After working in Delhi with Macmillan Publishers for two and half years, he founded Roli Books in 1978, initially to publish illustrated books, the first being one on Rajasthan.[3] The business is family run; Kapoor works alongside his wife Kiran, son Kapil and daughter Priya.[3] In 2014, he acquired India Ink imprint for fiction.[3] Other imprints include Lustre Press for illustrated books, and the Lotus Collection for biographies, non-illustrated non-fiction books.[4]

Awards

In 2016, for his contributions to publishing, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, presented by François Richier.[5][6]

Selected works

Now and then series

His Calcutta Then – Kolkata Now contains images of polo games, tea dances and trams, pukka sahibs, Anglo-Indians, Chinese, Jews and Armenians.[7]

Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography (2016)

Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography (2016) was the first book he authored.[8] In it, Gandhi's biography is told in pictures, including photographs of Gandhi with members of the Greyville Cricket Club, Durban, a painting of Gandhi being operated upon by hurricane lamp in Poona and a portrait of Gandhi having tea with King George V and Queen Mary in Buckingham Palace.[9] A review in The Navhind Times described it as "an absorbing book that presents a rounded picture of a complicated man".[10]

1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny; Last War of Independence

He reported in an interview for the Hindustan Times that while reading volumes 89 and 90 of The Complete Works of Mahatma Gandhi in his research for Gandhi's biography, he became interested in Royal Indian Navy mutiny.[11] It led him to look at historical records, newspaper reports, mutineer memoirs, and interviews with their descendants, to produce the book 1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny; Last War of Independence.[12]

Other works

  • Witness to Life and Freedom: Margaret Bourke-White in India and Pakistan (2013).[13]
  • New Delhi: The Making of a Capital[14]
  • My Experiments with Gandhi[14]

References

  1. ^ a b Laskar, Rezaul H (11 January 2019). "Review: Calcutta Then: Kolkata Now". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. ^ Ghoshal, Somak (8 February 2019). "Business News Today: Read Latest Business News, Live India Share Market News, Finance & Economy News". mint. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Ghai, S. K. (2008). "6. Pramod Kapoor". One to One: Glimpses of Indian Publishing Industry. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-81-207-3948-2.
  4. ^ Ghai, S. K. (1 September 2008). "Glimpses of Indian Publishing Today in the Words of Publishing Professionals". Publishing Research Quarterly. 24 (3): 202–214. doi:10.1007/s12109-007-9040-0. ISSN 1936-4792.
  5. ^ "Publisher Pramod Kapoor conferred with top French honour". The Economic Times. 13 March 2016. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  6. ^ "Roli Books founder gets highest civilian award of France". India Today. 13 March 2016. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  7. ^ Alexander, Deepa (16 January 2019). "The Calcutta chromosome". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  8. ^ Gupta, Gargi (5 December 2017). "Mahatma Gandhi's story needed to be retold for the young, says writer Pramod Kapoor". DNA India. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  9. ^ Debroy, Bibek (6 February 2016). "An Experiment with Pictures". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  10. ^ Narayan, Manjula (2 July 2016). "Harilal's father: Father of the nation". The Navhind Times. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  11. ^ Modi, Chintan Girish (25 February 2022). "Interview: Pramod Kapoor, author, 1946 Royal Indian Navy Mutiny; Last War of Independence - 'Histories are written by those who rule'". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  12. ^ Ray, Deeptanil (17 June 2022). "Freedom at sea". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  13. ^ Pramod, K. Nayar (23 September 2019). "The Trailblazing Lens of Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White". The Wire. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography authored by Pramod Kapoor". Jagranjosh.com. Jagran Prakashan Limited. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2022.