There have always been speculation and skepticism every time a book is adapted into a movie. Such has been the case with Kalki’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan as well. Only here, the twist awaits — said to be an assured source of revenue for Tamil publishing houses at the Chennai Book Fair for so long, at this year’s 48th edition of the fair, the books’ sales had dipped significantly.
The publishing houses have attributed the change to the books being adapted into a two-part movie directed by Mani Ratnam and released in 2022 and 2023, respectively, along with the decline in readers’ attention span and the dying art of picking up a book and reading.
Karthikeyan Pugalendi, of Sixth Sense Publications, noticed the dip in sales after the release of the film’s second part in 2023. “When the first part of the movie came out in 2022, the sales of the novels went up as the film ended on a cliffhanger. But things changed after the second part was released. People assumed that the ending is similar to that of the novels, but that is not the case. So, they stopped buying the books,” he says.
“We sold around 3,000 copies after the first part of the movie. It gave us confidence that the second part would usher in more demand for the books. So, we printed 1,000 more copies. However, when the second part was released, less than 500 copies were sold. This year, it has further decreased to just 150 copies being sold. It was originally priced at around ₹1,200 per set, but people are not even buying it for ₹400 now,” says Dinesh Kumar, office-in-charge of Shree Shenbaga Pathippagam.
Mr. Pugalendi says the Ponniyin Selvan novels had always contributed an assured 10% of revenue at the book fair, but due to the sharp decline in sales, publishing houses are now looking for other ways to secure this revenue.
Harish, of New Horizon Media Pvt. Ltd., says his focus has now shifted to recovering the money spent on printing alone. “We are giving way more offers than we used to, just to exhaust the existing stock,” he adds.
Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, historian, writer, and researcher, says that reading a five-part novel has now become a laborious process. “Consuming a condensed medium has just made it easier, even if it is not well-made. Back in the day, even if one was not a reader, owning a Ponniyin Selvan collection was a status symbol,” he adds.
Beginning of a new era
First-time seller at the book fair, R.K. Kumar, a translator, with Manimekalai Prasuram as the distributor, had published 200 copies of the book, of which 54 copies were sold. “The book has been divided into two parts. Mahesh, the illustrator of the books, has done a fantastic job. The movie has helped in spreading awareness and has made the younger generation pick up the book. Earlier, only the older generation used to read,” he says.
The dropping of sales also has a flipside: it has created space for other Tamil writers to put forth their works and get the limelight, says Mr. Pugalendi.
Savitri (name changed on request), an avid reader, says that she was excited when she heard about the release of the films but was let down by the second part. “You cannot condense a five-part book into just two movies. It may have worked out better in a series format.”
However, for Harsh (name changed on request), the movies were spectacular, and he enjoyed their grandeur. “I watched the first part of the film twice in a theatre. Reading the book in Tamil is hard for me because of the complex language used.”
