Juggernaut Books Explained

Juggernaut Books
Founded:September 2015
Founder:Chiki Sarkar, Durga Raghunath
Country:India
Headquarters:New Delhi, India
Distribution:Online and physical
Publications:Online publishing, short stories, autobiographies, ebooks

Juggernaut Books is a publisher headquartered in New Delhi, India.[1] [2] Starting with digital books distributed via its website and mobile apps, it turned to publishing physical books later.

History

Juggernaut was founded by Durga Raghunath and Chiki Sarkar in September 2015.[3] Before co-founding Juggernaut, Sarkar was a publisher of Penguin India and founder-publisher of Random House India. Raghunath was the CEO of Network18 Digital, senior VP-Growth, at Zomato and also founded Firstpost.[4]

Juggernaut raised Rs 15 crores in its initial round of seed funding from Fabindia's chairman William Bissell; former CEO and co-founder of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani and MD of Boston Consulting Group, Neeraj Aggarwal.[5]

In April 2016, Juggernaut launched India's first mobile-publishing application.[1] [6] Priya Ramani was appointed as the editor-at-large for its digital properties in the same year.[7] In February 2017, Raghunath resigned from the post of CEO and decided to continue as a shareholder.[8] Simran Khara is the current CEO of the publishing house.[9]

In December 2017, Bharti Airtel acquired a strategic stake in the house.[10] In March 2019, American publishing house HarperCollins joined in a partnership with Juggernaut Books, becoming their sales, distribution partner.[11]

Notable authors

Juggernaut’s authors include Nobel Laureates Svetlana Alexievich, Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee; Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy; historians William Dalrymple, Ramachandra Guha, Manu S. Pillai and Anirudh Kanisetti; journalists Tony Joseph, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt and Sagarika Ghose; politicians Arun Jaitley, Yashwant Sinha, and Mani Shankar Aiyar; thinkers Pankaj Mishra and Pratap Bhanu Mehta; diplomats Shyam Saran and T.C.A. Raghavan; and celebrities Sourav Ganguly, Twinkle Khanna, Rujuta Diwekar, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sakshi Malik.

Awards

Controversies

On 4 August 2017, Delhi High Court imposed a ban on publication and sale of book Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev from Juggernaut Books written by Priyanka Pathak Narain based on Ramdev's life.[28] After a legal battle with Ramdev, the ex-parte interim injunction was lifted from the book on 28 April 2018.[29]

In 2018, the book The Burning Forest: India's war in Bastar published from Juggernaut books, written by Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar based on Maoist insurgency and the violence in Bastar was dropped from the department's syllabus. Sundar was also indicted in a murder case filed by a woman called Vimla Baghel of her husband, a Maoist activist. But in February 2019, the professor was cleared of murder charges by police.[30]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: India's first smartphone publisher is now live—with stories from adult film star Sunny Leone. Quartz. en-IN. 22 April 2016. 11 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180621170821/https://qz.com/666842/indias-first-smartphone-publisher-goes-live-with-sunny-leones-erotica-and-rajat-guptas-tell-all/. 21 June 2018. live.
  2. Web site: Juggernaut India's answer to Wattpad gets its first movie deal as an injunction against another Juggernaut title is restored - The New Publishing Standard. 19 May 2018. 23 August 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180823105950/https://www.thenewpublishingstandard.com/juggernaut-indias-answer-wattpad-gets-first-movie-deal-injunction-another-juggernaut-title-restored/. 23 August 2018. live.
  3. Web site: Juggernaut Books announces the release of Naveen Patnaik, the first political biography of Odisha's CM. Banerjee. Ruben . 2018-08-05. OdishaDiary. en-US. 2019-02-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20190209232240/http://orissadiary.com/juggernaut-books-announces-release-naveen-patnaik-first-political-biography-odishas-cm-journalist-ruben-banerjee/. 2019-02-09. live.
  4. Web site: Here comes Juggernaut, Chiki Sarkar's new publishing venture. Printweek. en-IN. 23 September 2015. 11 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180621221330/http://www.printweek.in/news/comes-juggernaut-chiki-sarkar-8217-publishing-venture-11832. 21 June 2018. live.
  5. Web site: Airtel picks up stake in online writers platform Juggernaut Books. Entrackr. 4 December 2017. 11 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180621170919/https://entrackr.com/2017/12/airtel-stake-juggernaut/. 21 June 2018. live.
  6. Web site: India's think-outside-the-box publisher Juggernaut partners with Youth Ki Awaaz for exclusive digital originals. The New Publishing Standard. en-IN. 31 March 2018. 11 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180404195408/http://www.thenewpublishingstandard.com/indias-think-outside-box-publisher-juggernaut-partners-youth-ki-awaaz-exclusive-digital-originals/. 4 April 2018. live.
  7. Web site: Juggernaut Books appoints Priya Ramani as editor at large. 2016-01-04. MediaNama. en-US. 2019-02-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20190227060639/https://www.medianama.com/2016/01/223-juggernaut-books-appoints-priya-ramani-as-editor-at-large/. 2019-02-27. live.
  8. Web site: Durga Raghunath Steps Down As CEO Of Chiki Sarkar's Juggernaut Books. Huffington Post. en-IN. 2 October 2017. 11 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180621170810/https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/02/10/durga-raghunath-steps-down-as-ceo-of-chiki-sarkars-juggernaut-b_a_21711231/. 21 June 2018. live.
  9. Web site: Airtel picks up stake in Juggernaut. 2017-12-04. The Indian Express. en-IN. 2019-02-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20190227120755/https://indianexpress.com/article/business/airtel-picks-up-stake-in-juggernaut-4967139/. 2019-02-27. live.
  10. Web site: Bharti Airtel acquires strategic stake in Juggernaut Books. The Hindu Business. en-IN. 4 December 2017.
  11. Web site: HarperCollins to be sales, distribution partner of Juggernaut Books. PTI. @businessline. en. 2019-03-22.
  12. Web site: 2018-10-24 . ‘Jasmine Days’ by Benyamin, a novel in translation, wins the Rs 25-lakh JCB Prize for Literature . 2024-11-08 . Scroll.in . en.
  13. Web site: Isha . Diya . 2024-02-10 . ‘I am not a linear writer. If it’s a 300-page novel, I am not writing it sequentially’: Benyamin . 2024-11-08 . Scroll.in . en.
  14. Web site: 2022-11-19 . ‘The Paradise of Food’ by Khalid Jawed, translated by Baran Farooqi, wins JCB Prize for Literature . 2024-11-08 . Scroll.in . en.
  15. Web site: 2019-12-17 . Amitabha Bagchi’s ‘Half The Night Is Gone’ wins $25,000-DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019 . 2024-11-08 . Scroll.in . en.
  16. Web site: Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2017 . 2024-11-08 . agblfprize.in.
  17. Web site: Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2019 . 2024-11-08 . agblfprize.com.
  18. Web site: Singh . Aakanksha . 2019-11-25 . Takeaways from Tata Literature Live-2019 . 2024-11-08 . TheSeer . en-US.
  19. News: 2019-12-02 . Author Tony Joseph’s ‘Early Indians’ wins 2019 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize . 2024-11-08 . The Hindu . en-IN . 0971-751X.
  20. Web site: ‘Failure to Make Round Rotis’ and other gender challenges . 2024-11-08.
  21. Web site: Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2020 . 2024-11-08 . agblfprize.com.
  22. Web site: A Kanisetti, Lords of the Deccan author: I feel gleeful when I demolish binaries . 2024-11-08.
  23. Web site: 2023-06-23 . Sahitya Akademi announces winners of Bal Sahitya Puraskar, Yuva Puraskar . 2024-11-08 . The Indian Express . en.
  24. Web site: 2017-11-20 . Girish Karnad conferred with 2017 Tata Literature Live Lifetime Achievement Award . 2024-11-08 . Jagranjosh.com . en.
  25. News: PTI . 2019-11-18 . Writer Shanta Gokhale honoured with lifetime achievement award at Tata Literature Live . 2024-11-08 . The Hindu . en-IN . 0971-751X.
  26. Web site: Twinkle Khanna's book wins at 17th Crossword awards . 2024-11-08 . Onmanorama.
  27. Web site: 2022-08-25 . Bal Sahitya Puraskar awarded The Navhind Times . 2024-11-08 . en-US.
  28. News: Delhi High Court stays publication and sale of book on Ramdev's life. 2018-05-10. The Economic Times. 2019-02-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20190223020425/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/delhi-high-court-stays-publication-and-sale-of-book-on-ramdevs-life/articleshow/64111287.cms. 2019-02-23. live.
  29. Web site: In 'landmark victory for free speech', injunction on book on Ramdev's life lifted. 2018-04-28. The Financial Express. 2019-02-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20190227181956/https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/in-landmark-victory-for-free-speech-injunction-on-book-on-ramdevs-life-lifted/1149116/. 2019-02-27. live.
  30. Web site: Chhattisgarh: Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar cleared of murder charges by police. Scroll Staff. Scroll.in. en-US. 2019-02-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20190227060519/https://scroll.in/latest/912930/chhattisgarh-delhi-university-professor-nandini-sundar-gets-clean-chit-from-police-in-murder-case. 2019-02-27. live.

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