Forty years ago, when Naveen Kishore began Seagull Books in Kolkata, he might not have imagined how many people his niche venture would touch, across countries. The independent publishing house specialises in books on art, theatre and cinema, is known for its translations, and also owns worldwide English-language publishing rights for authors (several of them Nobel laureates) as renowned as Peter Handke, Mo Yan and László Krasznahorkai. And, it has a backlist of over 500 titles.
To commemorate its four decades, director Pushan Kripalani — known for films such as Goldfish (2022) starring Kalki Koechlin and Deepti Naval — has come up with Of the Book and Other Stories, a 151-minute documentary on the publication house and the man behind it. The inaugural screening was in Bangalore on July 7.
