Monday, January 20, 2020

Book fair gets over 1 lakh visitors on Sunday

Works translated into Tamil have been a huge draw at the event this year, says publisher

20/01/2020, STAFF REPORTER,CHENNAI


For all ages: Visitors throng the 43rd Book Fair held at Nandanam on Sunday. B. Velankanni Raj

For over 1 lakh people, all roads led to the 43rd Chennai Book Fair at the YMCA grounds in Nandanam on Sunday.

Organised by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), the fair saw large turnouts through the weekend. The organisers said several families with children visited the fair as the long break on account of Pongal was ending.

S. Neelagandan, who was at the fair with his family, said that most of them came to buy books for children.

“Not just story books in Tamil in English, but we’ve also been interested in comics, activity and puzzle books,” he said.

Books translated into Tamil have been a huge draw at the fair this year.

“We are selling volumes of Sherlock Holmes translated into Tamil as well as new books such as Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari in Tamil, which many readers have been interested in,” said Vijay Prakash from Tamil Annai Publishers.

In a new addition this year, the book fair also hosted a short film festival, which drew to a close on Sunday evening. “Nearly 55 short films and 2 documentary films were screened through the last 10 days. Aspiring film makers were asked to submit short films with a social message and several visitors to the fair joined us every evening for the screenings,” said Arun Prakash, who had organised the festival.

R.S. Shanmugam, President, BAPASI, said that compared to the previous year they had seen nearly a 20% increase in footfall.

“In total, we have had over 10 lakh people visit the fair since it began. The exhibition on Keeladi in particular has been very well received. It was an informative experience that we decided to give the visitors this year,” he added.

On Monday, the book fair will be open from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

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