‘Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014’ winners announced 13 years of rewarding the best in Indian writing

‘Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014’ winners announced

13 years of rewarding the best in Indian writing

• “The Blind Lady’s Descendants by Anees Salim” won the Raymond Crossword Book Award in the Indian Fiction category  The other short listed books were
• The competent Authority by Shovon Chawdhary - Aleph pyblishers
• The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baske- Hansda Sowvenbdra Shekar- Aleph
• The Smoke is Rising by Mahesh Rao- Random House
• The Place by Amitabha Bagchi- Harper Collins
• Odyesseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhary-Penguin Books

• “This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian” won the award for Indian Non-Fiction. The other short listed books in this category were
• Capital- by Rana Dasgupta- Harper Collins
• A Southern Music by T.M.Krishna -Harper Collins
• Filomena's Journeys' by maria Aurora Couto- Aleph
• Colours of The Cage- A Prison Memoir by Arun Ferreira- Aleph
• Public Secrets of Law: rape trials in India by Pratiksha Baxi- Oxford University Press.

• “Children, Women, Men By Sundara Ramaswamy Translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom” won the Indian language Translation category. The other books  shortlisted in this category were-
• Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar- translated by Jerry Pinto- Penguin Books
• One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan 0translated by Aniruddha Vasudevan- penguin Books
• The Mirror of beauty by Shamsur rahman Faruqi- translated by penguin Books
• A dirge for the Damned by Vishwas Patil translated by Keerti Ramachandra- Hachette India
• The death of Sheherzad by Intezaar Hussain translated by Rakshanda Jallil- Harper Collins
• 
  

 

• “Bankerupt by Ravi Subramanian” won the Popular Award The other nominess in this category were...
• The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya baru- penguin
• Sita by Devdutt Pattanaik- Penguin 
• The Mahabharata Secret by Christopher Doyle- Om Books
• Byculla o Bankok by S Husain Zaidi- Harper Collins
• My journey transforming Dreams into Action by APJ Abdul Kalam Azad-Rupa Publications
• Dilip Kumar- the Substance by Dilip Kumar - Hay House Publishers
• Like It Happened Yesterday- by Ravindra Singh- Penguin
•  Ajaya by Anand Neelkantan- Leadstart
• Private India by Ashwin Sanghi- Random House
• House of cards by Sudha Murthy- Penguin books
• Gandhi Before India by Ramchandra Guha- Penguin Books
• Chanakya's Seven Secrets of Leadership-Radhakrishnan pillai and D.Sivanandan -Jaico
• When only Love remains-Durjoy Dutta- Penguin Books
• 
  

 

• “Timmi in Tangles by Shals Mahajan Duckbill” won Kotak Junior Children writing award

 Other books shortlisted in this category werre

Vanamala and the Cephalopod- Shalini Srinivasan -Duckbill

The Susu Pals by Richa Jha SWPB

The adventures of Skoob by Samit basu-Rupa publications

The Flat track bullies by Balaji venkatramanan- Duckbill

April 28th 2015, Mumbai: The finest of Indian Literature took center stage at “RAYMOND CROSSWORD BOOK AWARDS 2014’ as the country’s finest writers and their books were honoured at a glittering award function at NCPA in Mumbai. The awards this year are in association with Principal Retirement Advisors, Club Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Runwal Group.

Eminent jurist and a former mayor and Sheriff of Mumbai Nana Chudasama and Indian fashion designer, politician, and a social worker Shaina NC were the Chief Guest for the evening which also included a memorable performance by The Raghu Dixit Project.

With over 50,000 voting entries for the popular award, it is the highest number of votes ever received in the history of the Book Award. The entire judging process has taken more than 3 rigorous months which includes shortlisting the books to announcing the final winner.

 

Mr Govind Shrikhande MD Shoppers Stop 

Mr Kinjal Shah CEO Crossword Bookstore

Speaking on the occasion Mr Kinjal Shah (CEO – Crossword Bookstores) said, “This year we complete 13 years of the Book Award. These awards have always been an integral part of the brand & we are thrilled at the way it has grown over the years & supported Indian writing. We at crossword would like to thank the readers, authors, publishers, the jury, and all our sponsors for their support in the endeavour of rewarding the best of Indian Literature”

Commenting on this occasion Madhu Dutta, Marketing Head - Lifestyle Business, Raymond Limited said, "An avid reader breathes life into a story; a story that springs to life and performs in front of you. It’s an intellectual mind that goes beyond the ordinary.  One to have that finer taste in life, a well-read and travelled gentleman resonates with everything that makes the complete man. We at Raymond couldn’t be happier to associate with Crossword Book Award to celebrate the seamless synergy between a reader and the sartorialist.”

The 13^th edition saw an outstanding response, from the various distinguished writers, publishers, critics and book-lovers who enjoyed the biggest celebration of Indian literature. Shortlisted authors Ravinder Singh, Durjoy Dutta, Ashwin Sanghi, S Hussain Zaidi, Rashmi Bansal, Anand Neelkhantan, Ravi Subramanian, Jerry Pinto, Amitabh Bagchi were present at event.

 The highlight of the evening though was charismatic performer Raghu Dixit's energised vocal kalisthenics blasting out four of his youtube International hits. He was clad in his traditional Mysore get-up which consisted of a kanjeevaram Dhoti and a colored sarda with a guitar strung across one shoulder and weighty brass anklets rimming strings of payals on his ankles. Accompanying him on the violin was Bhaskar Mysore, his one time collaborator who was accompanying him for the first time in 20 years. Belting out Hey Bhagwan, No Man will ever love you like I do, A Kannadiga song that had the audience singing along and Mysore se aayee. Raghu's impressive presence, fantastic vocals and guitar play combined with Mysore Bhaskar's virtuoso violin jugalbandi was music to the laid back stuffed-shirt audience who let their hair down by engaging with the singer both in voice and accompaniments. It was a never seen before sight at the haloed NCPA Tata Theatre where the audience is generally quite subdued in their appreciation to the international music talents that come their way. Cries of onemore were heard loud and clear and the audience saw it fit to give raghu a standing ovation to serenade his unique display of talent.  

About the Awards

Crossword Book Award is the only Indian award that recognizes and rewards good writing and also actively promotes Indian authors and their books. When the book awards were launched in 1998, there was one cash prize of Rs. 2 lakhs for the best original work of fiction in English by an Indian author, and it was won by Allan Sealy for The Everest Hotel. In 1999, a new category was added Indian Language Fiction Translation into English and the cash prize was increased to 3 lakhs in each category. In 2005, two more award categories were added English Non-Fiction, as well as the Popular Award. In 2009 award for Indian Children’s writing was introduced thus making it the only Indian literary award that rewards authors across 5 different categories. Each award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a trophy and a citation.

About Crossword:

Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Shopper's Stop Ltd - India's leading department store chain with 97 stores, across 33cities in India and as on today is India's fastest growing chain of bookstores. At Crossword we aim to be a point of cultural and social interaction where authors and poets hold court, where children are regaled, where people gravitate to be informed, to be entertained, even enlightened. Crossword vision is to build community centers for readers across the Country. Crossword launched the Crossword Book Award in 1998 to recognize and reward the best of Indian writing across Fiction, Non Fiction, Children's, Translation & Popular. Since its inception in 15th October 1992, It has been featured in Advertising Age International, USA, as one of the Marketing Superstars for 1994. The Bookseller, UK, has also described it as 'being on the cutting edge of retailing' in India. Crossword was ranked the 6th most admired retailer in India by Business world for the year 2006. It also won the Star Retailer Award for the Best Lifestyle Retailer in Books & Music in 2011. Crossword won the Retailer of the Year Award - Leisure (Books, Music and Gifts Category) at the Images Retail Awards 2005 & 2007& 2009. Crossword received the Federation of Indian Publishers Award for excellence in Publishing for the year 2004 on 18th June 2005 at the hands of Shri Arjun Singh, Minister of Human Resource Development. It won the Debutant E-retailer of the year - books - at India eRetail Awards 2012. In 2013 Crossword also won The ET Retail Award for Marketing for ‘Crossword Popular Award’. It won the Best Book retailer award in 2014 at the Indian Retail Awards

About Raymond Limited

Raymond offers end-to-end solutions for fabrics and garmenting. It has some of the leading brands in its portfolio including Raymond Ready-to-Wear, Park Avenue, Parx, ColorPlus, Makers amongst others. Raymond has one of the largest exclusive retail networks in the textile and fashion space in India.

As a part of the diversified Group, we also have business interests in men’s accessories, personal grooming & toiletries, prophylactics, energy drinks, files and tools and auto components.

Visit us today at www.raymondnext.com to witness how we cater to the needs of 'The Complete Man'

Launched - Anupama Chopra's book -- "The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema" -- with Kangana Ranaut, Rajeev Masand and Arunabh Kumar on Tuesday, April 7, Taj Lands

 Launched - Anupama Chopra's book -- "The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema" -- with Kangana Ranaut, Rajeev Masand and Arunabh Kumar on Tuesday, April 7, Taj Lands

The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema by Anupama Chopra

The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema is a collection of Anupama Chopras’ televised interviews with both Bollywood and Hollywood personalities. These include Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut , Priyanka Chopra as well as a host of international celebrities that include Jackie Chan, Will Smith, Martin Scorsese and Johnny Depp to name a few.

These conversations give an insight into the creative process of actors, directors and producers who have made some of the most memorable movies in recent times. The interviews were conducted from 2012-2014, the years the show 'The Front Row' aired on Star World. 
Recalling the experience of creating the show, Anupama Chopra said, "The sound stage, now studio number 6, at Mumbai’s Mehboob Studio has a storied past. The studio itself was founded in 1954.  For two years, this space was also my professional home.  The Front Row set, a medley of black, blue and white shimmering mirrors, stood here from April 2012 to 2014.   Every week, we shot reviews, interviews and panel discussions.  The hours were long but the set was intimate.  I remember one December evening when we shot two conversations in a row – first an actor’s panel with Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh followed immediately with a promotional interview for Dhoom 3 with Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra.  The first panel ran late, Aamir arrived early. At one point, there was a star jam on stage 6.  

We shot an interview with Yo Yo Honey Singh at midnight because that’s when he comes alive.  One of the many cats at Mehboob Studio traipsed on the set during a shoot with the Barfi cast – Ranbir Kapoor continued unfazed.  My moment of bliss came when one of my favourite directors Ang Lee came on set for an interview on Life of Pi – I felt that the space had been blessed.  Each interview felt new.  Each day was fun."

 

Below is an excerpt from the foreword by Kangana Ranaut:

“Interviews are a part of my job, but they aren’t all the same. There are the really crappy ones that test your patience. Those are not real interviews. Sometimes, they ask you to do funny things like sing a song or twirl. You’re treated like a ‘madari ka bandar’, and it’s embarrassing. Then there are genuine interviews, like the ones on The Front Row. I often joke that my interview in The Front Row was the biggest hit I ever had. It was a real interview.  We talked about things that matter.”

For a quick video insight into the book click on the link below.http://bit.ly/1KoDJD8

About Anupama Chopra
ANUPAMA CHOPRA is a film critic, television anchor and author. She is also director of the Mumbai Film Festival. She has been writing about Bollywood since 1993. She is founder and editor of the Film Companion channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/thefilmcompanion). Film Companion offers a curated look at cinema – Bollywood, Hollywood and beyond. Anupama has also worked extensively with Star World, Star Plus and NDTV 24/7. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Hindustan Times, The Los Angeles Times and VOGUE (India). In 2001, Anupama won the National Award for Best Book on Cinema for Sholay: The Making of a Classic.

Report of the Event:

The event which was held at the poolside Taj Lands end began at least an hour late. The guests though were kept in high spirits with assorted alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and finger eats. Anil Dharker gave the assembled audience constituting friends, colleagues and well-wishers from the media, Anupama's family represented by parents, sister Tanuja Chandra and Anupama's husband Producer Moghul Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Since the main attraction, Two-time national award winning actress, Kangana Rannaut and one of the celebrity guests whose quotes set a trend on twitter and youtube, was delayed , it was left to the three others assembled on the stage to begin the conversation. A short AV of the show was played and then the conversation starter was about how it was becoming increasingly difficult for TV interviewers cum critics to get stars on their shows. Because while one day they are seen to be joking and laughing on the show the next day their films are being panned and their performances ripped apart by the same host they thought was their friend.  Arunabh Kumar was of the opinion that digital media has now made it possible to entice stars into coming on board for fun interviews that are rendered n a lighter and much friendlier vein. In fact the stars who shun the Anupama's and Rajeev's of the Media world find it easier and much more profitable to be lampooned and trended on social networking sites. 

Anupama also spoke about how the trend today is towards advertorials and how advertising, marketing and journalism have merged to convey paid news to the unsuspecting reader. It's a trend that she and her fellow senior journalist compatriots find difficult to navigate. 

When Kangana made her entry it was time to discuss the interview she had done on 'The Front Row' and the famous quotes that shocked most people who watched the show.  Her candid quotes on marriage and the conditioning of women towards that aspect  

 were a trend setter on twitter and other social networking sites and she had even received numerous calls congratulating her on her statements while expressing surprise that it was she who said it. 

Kangana admitted that she never reads the newspaper neither does she watch TV. She doesn't want to be influenced by adulterated content that is more often fake than truth. She was also candid enough to say that she would never be able to do a jhatka, utter a dialogue form one of her films or sing a song on one of the many shows she may be invited to. She is just not comfortable doing so. She respects her craft and doesn't want to demean it in any fashion. On the other hand she accepts that there may be stars /actors who have no compunction of entertaining the audience of TV or live shows with their filmy antics. Kangana was all praise for Anupama's ability to get her to talk freely and openly about her thoughts and feelings. After that interview, her popularity soared to new heights and she's never had to look back since. 

At the end it was the turn of the assembled guests to unwrap the book and present it to the audience!

Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014- Shortlist Announced

Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014- Shortlist Announced

April, 2015 Mumbai: Raymond & Crossword in association with Principal Retirement Advisors, Club Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Runwal Group announce the Shortlist for its Fiction, Non fiction, Translation & Children’s Categories.

The shortlist is arrived by an esteemed panel of Jury members in every category. Final winners will be announced on the award function to be held in Mumbai on 28^th April Tuesday  at NCPA Tata Theatre at 7pm. Raymond Crossword Book Award had also earlier released the shortlisted books for the popular award.

Indian Fiction

·         The Competent Authority by Shovon Chowdhury, Aleph

·         The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baske by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Aleph

·         The Smoke is Rising by Mahesh Rao, Random House India

·         This Place by Amitabha Bagchi, Harper Collins

·         Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri, Penguin Books India

·         The Blind Lady’s Descendants by Anees Salim, Westland

                                                                                                               

Indian Non Fiction

·         Capital by Rana Dasgupta, Harper Collins

·         A Southern Music by T.M. Krishna, Harper Collins

·         Filomena's Journeys by Maria Aurora Couto , Aleph

·         Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir by Arun Ferreira, Aleph

·         Public Secrets of Law: Rape Trials in India by Pratiksha Baxi, Oxford University Press

·         This Divided Island : Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian, Penguin Books India

Indian Language Translation:

·         Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar translated by Jerry Pinto, Penguin Books India

·         Children, Women, Men by Sundara Ramaswamy translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom, Penguin Books India

·         One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, Penguin Books India

·         The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Penguin Books India

·         A Dirge for the Dammed, by Vishwas Patil   translated by Keerti Ramachandra, Hachette India

·         The Death of Sheherzad by Intizaar Hussain translated by Rakshanda Jalil, Harper Collins

Children’s Writing:

·         Vanamala and the Cephalopod by Shalini Srinivasan, Duckbill

·         Timmi in Tangles by Shalini Mahajan, Duckbill

·         The Susu Pals by Richa Jha, SWPB

·         The Adventures of Skoob by Samit Basu, Rupa Publications

·         Flat-track Bullies by Balaji Venkataramanan, Duckbill

Popular Award Nominations:

·         The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru, Penguin Books India

·         Sita by Devdutt  Pattanaik, Penguin Books India

·         The Mahabharata Secret by Christopher Doyle, Om Books International

·         Bankerupt by Ravi Subramanian, Penguin Books India

·         Byculla To Bangkok by S Hussain Zaidi, Harper Collins India

·         My Journey:Transforming Dreams Into Action by Dr A.P.J Kalam, Rupa Publications India

·         Dilip Kumar - The Substance by Dilip Kumar, Hay House india

·         Like It Happened Yesterday by Ravinder Singh, Penguin Books India

·         Ajaya byAnand Neelkantan, Leadstart Publishing

·         Private India by Ashwin Sanghi, Random House India

·         House Of Cards by Sudha Murty, Penguin Books India

·         Gandhi Before India by Ramchandra Guha, Penguin Books India

·         Chanakya's 7 Secrets Of Leadership by Radhakrishnan Pillai & D. Sivanandhan, Jaico Publishing

·         When Only Love Remains by Durjoy Datta, Penguin Books India

This year The Crossword Book Award 2014 considered entries published in India from 1^st April 2013 to 30^thSeptember 2014.  This year only 6 entries per publisher per category were considered. Voting for the Popular Award closes on 26^th April.

           

About the Awards

Crossword Book Award is the only Indian award that recognizes and rewards good writing and also actively promotes Indian authors and their books.

When the book awards were launched in 1998, there was one cash prize of Rs. 2 lakhs for the best original work of fiction in English by an Indian author, and it was won by Allan Sealy for The Everest Hotel. In 1999, a new category was added Indian Language Fiction Translation into English and the cash prize was increased to 3 lakhs in each category. In 2005, two more award categories were added English Non-Fiction, as well as the Popular Award. In 2009 award for Indian Children’s writing was introduced thus making it the only Indian literary award that rewards authors across 5 different categories.

Each award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a trophy and a citation.

About Crossword:

Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Shopper's Stop Ltd - India's leading department store chain with 97 stores, across 33cities in India and as on today is India's fastest growing chain of bookstores. At Crossword we aim to be a point of cultural and social interaction where authors and poets hold court, where children are regaled, where people gravitate to be informed, to be entertained, even enlightened. Crossword vision is to build community centers for readers across the Country. Crossword launched the Crossword Book Award in 1998 to recognize and reward the best of Indian writing across Fiction, Non Fiction, Children's, Translation & Popular. Since its inception in 15th October 1992, It has been featured in Advertising Age International, USA, as one of the Marketing Superstars for 1994. The Bookseller, UK, has also described it as 'being on the cutting edge of retailing' in India. Crossword was ranked the 6th most admired retailer in India by Business world for the year 2006. It also won the Star Retailer Award for the Best Lifestyle Retailer in Books & Music in 2011. Crossword won the Retailer of the Year Award - Leisure (Books, Music and Gifts Category) at the Images Retail Awards 2005 & 2007& 2009. Crossword received the Federation of Indian Publishers Award for excellence in Publishing for the year 2004 on 18th June 2005 at the hands of Shri Arjun Singh, Minister of Human Resource Development. It won the Debutant E-retailer of the year - books - at India eRetail Awards 2012. In 2013 Crossword also won The ET Retail Award for Marketing for ‘Crossword Popular Award’. It won the Best Book retailer award in 2014 at the Indian Retail Awards

About Raymond Limited

Raymond offers end-to-end solutions for fabrics and garmenting. It has some of the leading brands in its portfolio including Raymond Ready-to-Wear, Park Avenue, Parx, ColorPlus, Makers amongst others. Raymond has one of the largest exclusive retail networks in the textile and fashion space in India.

As a part of the diversified Group, we also have business interests in men’s accessories, personal grooming & toiletries, prophylactics, energy drinks, files and tools and auto components.

Visit us today at www.raymondnext.com to witness how we cater to the needs of 'The Complete Man'