Amish Tripathi (born on 18 October 1974) is an Indian author.

He is known for his novels The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. The three books collectively comprise the Shiva Trilogy. Tripathi's debut work The Immortals of Meluha was a surprise bestseller, breaking into the top seller charts within a week of its launch.[1][2] The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1.7 million copies in print and over Rs 40 crores in sales. Forbes India has ranked him #85 in the 2012 Celebrity 100 list.[3]Contents [hide] 1 Career 2 Adaptations 3 Influence 4 Marketing 5 References

[edit] Career

Amish Tripathi is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Although he originally wanted to be a historian, Tripathi initially chose a career in finance because he couldn't afford the former.[4] He worked for 14 years in the financial services industry, in companies such as Standard Chartered, DBS Bank and IDBI Federal Life Insurance, before starting his writing career.[5]

The Immortals of Meluha, Tripathi's first novel, was published in February 2010. It is the first book in the Shiva Trilogy.[6] The second book in the series, The Secret of the Nagas, was released on 12 August 2011. The third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras, was released on 27 February 2013.[7] The trilogy is a fantasy reimagining of the Indian deity Shiva's life and adventures.

The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas, the first two novels by Tripathi, have been commercial successes. Amish's books have sold a million copies in the span of two years with a gross retail sale of Rs 22 crores. The third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras, was released on 27 February 2013. With The Oath of Vayuputras selling more than 400,000 copies even before its release, the trilogy has become a success. The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1.7 million copies in print and over Rs 40 crores in sales".[3][8]

The movie rights of The Immortals of Meluha were purchased by Dharma Productions in early 2012.[9] The Immortals of Meluha has also been released in United Kingdom in January 2013 through Jo Fletcher Books, an imprint of Quercus Books, UK.[10]` [edit] Adaptations

The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas have been released in the Indian subcontinent in English and Hindi. The Immortals of Meluha has also been released in various other Indian languages like Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese and Telugu.

In addition to the Indian movie rights sold to Dharma Productions, the international movie rights to The Immortals of Meluha are under discussion. Tripathi is represented by Creative Artists Agency, a top Hollywood based talent agency, for movie deals on the Shiva Trilogy.[11][12] [edit] Influence

All of Tripathi's books (released and planned) are on religious topics since he is a devoted worshiper of Shiva.[13][14][15] His grandfather was a Sanskrit scholar and a Pandit in Benares. Tripathi says that hes learnt most of his knowledge of Hindu theology and religion from his grandfather and his very religious parents. He had turned into an atheist in the early 1990s but returned to faith when he started writing his books. He believes that religiosity and liberalism go hand-in-hand in India, as he said at the Jaipur Literary Festival in 2011.[16] Amish quotes from the ancient Hindu scripture Rig Veda to say that Truth is one, but the wise men know it

as many; God is one, but we can approach Him in many ways. He says that he lives this philosophy; in his puja room at home, besides the idols of Lord Shiva and other Hindu Gods, he also regularly worships pictures of the Muslim Kaaba, Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, Prophet Zarathustra, Gautam Buddha besides symbols of many other religions.[16] [edit] Marketing

In the Indian market where large sales volumes of books are rare, Tripathi's books have been enormously successful. Tripathi's marketing skills and strategies have been widely credited for the success of his novels.[17][18] Tripathi himself says: "Its a fallacy to think that a good book sells itself. I can give you a long list of books that I think should have been bestsellers but nobodys heard of them. My management background along with marketing experience helped me devise effective strategies for promoting my book."[17]

Weeks before The Immortals of Meluha hit the bookshops, Tripathi printed sample copies of the first chapter and persuaded bookshops and chains to give them away free to anyone who approached the cash counter, creating a buzz.[1] It was an unprecedented move and gave the book very high visibility considering that at that time, Tripathi was an unknown author. He also made presentations to big retail chains, visited smaller retailers, met local distributors and regularly sent email updates to various stakeholders. Tripathi targeted social media websites for promoting his debut novel, and made a trailer film with a background score reportedly by Taufiq Qureshi and uploaded it on YouTube.[18]

For promotion of his second book, Tripathi created video trailers and screened them at multiplexes. These trailers were of similar quality as movie trailers, complete with visual effects.[19] They were released with the Shahrukh Khan starrer Ra.One.[17] Tripathi believed that this would "work as the audience that visits theatres is the same that reads my books."[20] Three other trailers were released on YouTube.[21]

In 2013, a music album called Vayuputras, an original soundtrack based on The Oath of the Vayuputras, the final book of the Shiva Trilogy, was released. The album had songs by artists like Sonu Nigam, Taufiq Qureshi, Palash Sen, Bickram Ghosh amongst others working on this. This was the first time ever that an original soundtrack has been made for a book series.[22]