When I was a reporter in Movie magazine many decades ago, my editor Rauf Ahmed introduced us to a feature called Studio Round Up. Every month my colleague and I went on a roundup of Bombay film studios, our staff photographer in the car and met up all the dream merchants. It was a day all of us looked forward to because we got to use the office car for the entire day and gallivant wherever we wanted. Looking back, it was a super way of connecting with the film fraternity and believe it or not, we literally walked into their homes, offices, studios and dubbing stations and shared lunch, tea and snacks with them. They opened their hearts to us and we came back with a trunk full of stories.
Decades later, when the electronic media took over our lives, that is exactly how our filmmakers promoted their films. The actors went on a media round-up hopping radio channels, television shows, engaging in media interactions till everyone was exhausted. To my surprise my publisher Fingerprint organized an identical trip for me to visit all the retail book stores in the city of Mumbai to promote my new book Letters to Self the English translation of our honorable Prime Minister’s Gujarati book Aankh Aa Dhanya Chhe.
Prakash Books sales team were at my building at 11 in the morning and together we ventured on our courageous journey beginning with the glorious Kitaab Khana in Fort, Mumbai…
To be continued…