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Juggernaut Books

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Juggernaut Books
FoundedSeptember 2015
FounderChiki Sarkar, Durga Raghunath
Country of originIndia
Headquarters locationNew Delhi, India
DistributionOnline and physical
Publication typesOnline publishing, short stories, autobiographies, ebooks
Official websitewww.juggernaut.in

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

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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 Fab India's founder 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

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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

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  • Jasmine Days by Benyamin, translated by Shahnaz Habib, won the JCB prize for literature in 2018[12] and the Crossword Indian Language Fiction Translation award in 2018[13]
  • The Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed won the JCB Prize for Literature in 2022[14]
  • Half the Night is Gone by Amitabha Bagchi won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2019[15]
  • The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad by Twinkle Khanna won the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2017, in the Popular Choice category[16]
  • Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From by Tony Joseph won the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2019, in the non-fiction category,[17] the 2019 TATA Literature Live! Book of The Year Award-Non Fiction 2019 [18] and won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2019[19]
  • Failure to Make Round Rotis by Mehak Goyal won the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize, 2023, in the popular choice category[20]
  • Alipura by Gyan Chaturvedi won the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize, 2021, in the fiction category[21]
  • Lords of the Deccan: Southern India from the Chalukyas to the Cholas by Anirudh Kanisetti won the Tata Literature Award for Book of the Year (Non-fiction) in 2022[22] and the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2023[23]
  • Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra won the book of the year, non-fiction, at the Tata Literature Live! Awards in 2017[24]
  • A Stranger Truth: Lessons in Love, Leadership and Courage from India’s Sex Workers by Ashok Alexander won the first book award in the non-fiction category at the TATA Literature Live! Awards in 2019[25]
  • Pyjamas are Forgiving by Twinkle Khanna won the Crossword Book Award (Popular) for Fiction in 2020[26]
  • Mahabharata for Children by Arshia Sattar won the Bal Sahitya Puraskar award in 2022 from the Sahitya Akademi[27]

Controversies

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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]

References

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  1. ^ a b "India's first smartphone publisher is now live—with stories from adult film star Sunny Leone". Quartz. 22 April 2016. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  2. ^ "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. Archived from the original on 23 August 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  3. ^ Banerjee, Ruben (5 August 2018). "Juggernaut Books announces the release of Naveen Patnaik, the first political biography of Odisha's CM". OdishaDiary. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Here comes Juggernaut, Chiki Sarkar's new publishing venture". Printweek. 23 September 2015. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Airtel picks up stake in online writers platform Juggernaut Books". Entrackr. 4 December 2017. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  6. ^ "India's think-outside-the-box publisher Juggernaut partners with Youth Ki Awaaz for exclusive digital originals". The New Publishing Standard. 31 March 2018. Archived from the original on 4 April 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  7. ^ "Juggernaut Books appoints Priya Ramani as editor at large". MediaNama. 4 January 2016. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  8. ^ "Durga Raghunath Steps Down As CEO Of Chiki Sarkar's Juggernaut Books". Huffington Post. 2 October 2017. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  9. ^ "Airtel picks up stake in Juggernaut". The Indian Express. 4 December 2017. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  10. ^ "Bharti Airtel acquires strategic stake in Juggernaut Books". The Hindu Business. 4 December 2017.
  11. ^ PTI. "HarperCollins to be sales, distribution partner of Juggernaut Books". @businessline. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  12. ^ https://scroll.in/latest/899515/jasmine-days-by-benyamin-a-novel-in-translation-wins-the-rs-25-lakh-jcb-prize-for-literature
  13. ^ https://scroll.in/article/1062762/i-am-not-a-linear-writer-if-its-a-300-page-novel-i-am-not-writing-it-sequentially-benyamin
  14. ^ https://scroll.in/article/1037824/the-paradise-of-food-by-khalid-jawed-translated-by-baran-farooqi-wins-jcb-prize-for-literature#:~:text=Writer%20Khalid%20Jawed%20won%20the,novel%20was%20published%20by%20Juggernaut.
  15. ^ https://scroll.in/latest/947038/amitabha-bagchis-half-the-night-is-gone-wins-25000-dsc-prize-for-south-asian-literature-2019
  16. ^ https://agblfprize.in/2017.php
  17. ^ https://agblfprize.com/2019.php
  18. ^ https://theseer.in/takeaways-from-tata-literature-live-2019/
  19. ^ https://www.thehindu.com/books/author-tony-josephs-early-indians-wins-2019-shakti-bhatt-first-book-prize/article61612157.ece
  20. ^ https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/lifestyle/failure-to-make-round-rotis-and-other-gender-challenges/cid/1995090
  21. ^ https://agblfprize.com/2021.php
  22. ^ https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/anirudh-kanisetti-author-lords-of-the-deccan-i-feel-gleeful-when-i-demolish-binaries-101670250377061.html
  23. ^ https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/sahitya-akademi-announces-winners-of-bal-sahitya-puraskar-yuva-puraskar-8682706/
  24. ^ https://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/girish-karnad-conferred-with-2017-tata-literature-live-lifetime-achievement-award-1511160874-1
  25. ^ https://www.thehindu.com/books/writer-shanta-gokhale-honoured-with-lifetime-achievement-award-at-tata-literature-live/article30004155.ece
  26. ^ https://www.onmanorama.com/lifestyle/news/2020/01/18/twinkle-khanna-book-wins-award-pyjamas-are-forgiving.html
  27. ^ https://www.navhindtimes.in/2022/08/25/magazines/buzz/bal-sahitya-puraskar-awarded/
  28. ^ "Delhi High Court stays publication and sale of book on Ramdev's life". The Economic Times. 10 May 2018. Archived from the original on 23 February 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  29. ^ "In 'landmark victory for free speech', injunction on book on Ramdev's life lifted". The Financial Express. 28 April 2018. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  30. ^ Scroll Staff. "Chhattisgarh: Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar cleared of murder charges by police". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
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