Legacy at crossroads: the surprising dip in Ponniyin Selvan sales at Chennai Book Fair

The publishing houses have attributed this phenomenon to the books being adapted into a two-part movie, besides the decline in readers’ attention span

There have always been speculation and skepticism every time a book is adapted into a movie. Such has been the case with Kalki’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan as well. Only here, the twist awaits — said to be an assured source of revenue for Tamil publishing houses at the Chennai Book Fair for so long, at this year’s 48th edition of the fair, the books’ sales had dipped significantly.

The publishing houses have attributed the change to the books being adapted into a two-part movie directed by Mani Ratnam and released in 2022 and 2023, respectively, along with the decline in readers’ attention span and the dying art of picking up a book and reading.

Karthikeyan Pugalendi, of Sixth Sense Publications, noticed the dip in sales after the release of the film’s second part in 2023. “When the first part of the movie came out in 2022, the sales of the novels went up as the film ended on a cliffhanger. But things changed after the second part was released. People assumed that the ending is similar to that of the novels, but that is not the case. So, they stopped buying the books,” he says.

“We sold around 3,000 copies after the first part of the movie. It gave us confidence that the second part would usher in more demand for the books. So, we printed 1,000 more copies. However, when the second part was released, less than 500 copies were sold. This year, it has further decreased to just 150 copies being sold. It was originally priced at around ₹1,200 per set, but people are not even buying it for ₹400 now,” says Dinesh Kumar, office-in-charge of Shree Shenbaga Pathippagam.

Mr. Pugalendi says the Ponniyin Selvan novels had always contributed an assured 10% of revenue at the book fair, but due to the sharp decline in sales, publishing houses are now looking for other ways to secure this revenue.

Harish, of New Horizon Media Pvt. Ltd., says his focus has now shifted to recovering the money spent on printing alone. “We are giving way more offers than we used to, just to exhaust the existing stock,” he adds.

Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, historian, writer, and researcher, says that reading a five-part novel has now become a laborious process. “Consuming a condensed medium has just made it easier, even if it is not well-made. Back in the day, even if one was not a reader, owning a Ponniyin Selvan collection was a status symbol,” he adds.