Kapish Mehra

Kapish G. Mehra (13 November 1984–present) is an Indian publisher. He is the Managing Director of Rupa Publications, India’s oldest as well as largest independent publishing house.[1] Mehra has been working in the publishing industry for close to 15 years now and is widely considered to be instrumental in reinventing Rupa.

Early life and education

Kapish Mehra was born to R.K. Mehra and Kaminee Mehra on 13 November 1984.

As a child, the senior Mehra put him to work dusting the books. Mehra didn’t mind: Publishing books was his rather atypical aspiration even then, and he loved spending time at the office after school.[2]

There is a quaint story from his childhood when one time, the young Mehra picked up an anomaly in one of the Rupa books presented to him by his father, R.K. Mehra. He was awarded with a cheque of Rs.100 in a sealed envelope the next day. The accompanying note read, “For Editorial Services.”[3]

Mehra went to school at St. Columba's School, New Delhi and graduated from Kirorimal College, Delhi University. He entered the business at 17 due to his father’s health issues and began dividing his time between the hospital and the company. Once he completed his graduation, he joined Rupa full-time.

Career

Rupa's work culture changed under Mehra's leadership with his emphasis on communication and intra-personal relations in the distribution network and providing an opportunity to first-time authors. Rupa’s traditional edge over its competitors—low prices—began to then being complemented by slick covers[4] and improved editing. Over the years, it has also developed an effective international distribution network.

At just 34, Kapish Mehra is a publishing veteran.

In 2011, publishing professional David Davidar joined hands with Rupa to start a new literary publishing firm, the Aleph Book Company.[5] Then in 2013, Rupa published its first book from its children’s imprint known as, Red Turtle that focused on creating intelligent and interesting titles for children.[6]

“At Rupa we believe there’s a book for everyone,” Mehra says.[7]

Authors

At Rupa, Mehra has published publishing heavyweights like former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Anurag Mathur, Bimal Jalan, Chetan Bhagat,[8] Devdutt Pattanaik, Jaya Jaitly, Jaswant Singh, Kapil Sibal, Kishore Biyani, Kingshuk Nag, K. Natwar Singh, L.K Advani, M Veerappa Moily, P. Chidambaram, former President Pranab Mukherjee, Ramesh Menon, Ruskin Bond, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ronnie Screwvala, Saba Naqvi, Salman Khurshid, Sanjaya Baru, Varun Gandhi, Varun Aggarwal, Vinod Rai, and more.[9]

Awards and Accolades

It was the efforts of Kapish Mehra that Rupa, over the years, has come to be identified with low priced books[10] that fall within the easy reach of readers.

Rupa Publications received the Award for Excellence in Book Production from the Federation of Indian Publishers two years in a row, in 2014 and 2015. Globally, it was shortlisted for International Adult Trade Publisher Award among top 3 international publishers by London Book Fair.[11] It has also received the 10th New Delhi World book fair Visitor’s Choice Award in 1992 and   the 14th New Delhi World book Fair Best Display Award in 1996. Kapish was recently featured among the Top Ten Indian Achievers by Time Out among its excellent profiles of change-makers from various fields in the country.

Personal life

Kapish Mehra lives in New Delhi with his wife and a son.

References
  1. "'We Don't Sell Authors, The Authors Sell Us'". Outlook. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  2. Nair, Supriya (2012-12-28). "Lounge". Mint. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  3. Molekhi, Pankaj (2010-08-22). "Kapish Mehra: Infusing energy into Rupa & Co". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  4. "Rupa Publications: Not just Kapish Mehra's great-grandfather's company | Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  5. "David Davidar, Rupa launch Aleph - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  6. "Red Turtle -- an imprint of Rupa Publications". Issuu. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  7. "The love of letters". The Hindu. 2009-07-04. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  8. "Writing its growth chapter - SmartCEO". SmartCEO. 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  9. "Authors | Rupa Publications". rupapublications.co.in. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  10. "Rupa - The Paper Tiger | Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  11. "Three Indian publishers compete for top honours at LBF Awards". printweek.in. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
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