Gujarati writers have found an unexpected patron in real estate businessman Sanjay Raval, who has started two book stores and is launching a publishing company this year. Not just books, Raval is also looking at good Gujarati scripts to make regional movies and give a fillip to the language.
“Gujarati cinema declined after a glorious period till the 80s. My first movie production Vitamin She is an upcoming Gujarati language romantic comedy. It has high-quality Gujarati songs, which lack in Gujarati cinema,” says the 52-year-old. He is planning a biopic on Sardar Patel, which will “use words and phrases from the Charotari dialect of central Gujarat, to which Sardar Patel belonged. I want to build an interest in Gujarati language, literature and music through books, films and other media”.
Raval’s passion for Gujarati books began when he was in high school in Palanpur in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district. “My parents were barely literate and struggled to make ends meet. My father was a tailor, and when I told him that I wish we could afford a bicycle, he told me to work to change my life. He told me to read, for knowledge gives power to change,” says Raval.
He started visiting the town’s library, which had been established by the erstwhile nawab of the Palanpur princely state in the early 20th century. “I read literature and novels to motivational and self-help books in Gujarati. While studying for my BSc in Chemistry, I worked in eateries and small hotels, and tutored children to make a living,” he says. Later, Raval dabbled in the real estate business and then started his own construction firm. His business prospered, and he started his first bookstore, Treasure, in Palanpur a decade ago to encourage the youth to read.
“It took time for people of this small town to get used to the idea of buying books. These days sales of Rs 15,000 worth of books a day is common in a town of 150,000 people,” he says.
Raval went to Ahmedabad in 2014, where he found very few bookshops had a good selection of Gujarati books. He rented a shop and started the bookstore Takshashila in a posh residential area with schools and colleges. He invested Rs 1 crore in the project to create attractive interiors with quality furniture and fixtures, air-conditioning and 70 per cent Gujarati books, the rest being English and Hindi titles. “The store drew a huge section of Ahmedabad’s society that loves reading Gujarati books,” he says.
Inspired by its success, Raval opened a second Takshashila in Gandhinagar in September 2015. “Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad lack good bookstores. Since Gandhinagar is the capital city and has many PSUs, we have Gujarati and English books here,” he says. The real estate businessman is now looking at opening a third Takshashila in the newly-developed areas of western Ahemdabad with its upscale malls and posh new neighbourhoods.
With many authors telling Raval they wished to have a platform for their books, he decided to “start Takshashila’s publishing division by the middle of 2016. Gujarati literature has a long history going back centuries, with many classics of the 19th and 20th century. There are many known Gujarati authors, like Gunvant Shah and Kaajal Oza Vaidhya, who are writing very good novels and non-fiction books today.” Raval hopes his publishing house will help further an interest in Gujarati language books.