GenX in Publishing!

Innovative ideas, new perspectives, fresh energy… Gen-X publishing professionals are dynamic and eager to take their companies to newer heights. All About Book Publishing met one such young professional in the book publishing industry. Excerpts. Arpit Bhargav
director
Diamond Comics Digital

Arpit BhargavDiamond Comics was founded by Gulshan Rai in the year 1978 and today Diamond Comics is the leading comic publisher of our country with more than 50 different IP’s and 5000 plus titles. They also published a series of comic digests based on Indian religion (all Gods and Goddess of Hindu religion), culture and heritage. Here, Arpit Bhargav, the director of Diamond Comics Digital shares more about it.

Indian values: always prime

On asking about the vision and philosophy of the company over the years, Arpit shares, “At Diamond Comics, we aim to create quality comic books for children with fun and entertaining values. We always focus on creating comics that are based on Indian values and its glorified culture. This belief, and our invariant love for children, drives us to publish numerous comic book titles every month. Our team pays good attention in selecting titles and stories which are as per the present scenario and acceptance. Our team spends good time with our junior fans in understanding their likings, mind-set, behaviour and vision for various entertainment products in the market. Based on our research and interaction with junior fans, we work on various new upcoming comic books and other entertainment products.”

Challenges in the industry…

“We think challenges are just like stairs. We have to climb them to reach our goal. The more we climb, the higher we get. If we focus on them and start counting as to how many we have climbed, we can never reach our goal,” he says. “Our main focus is to create entertainment products that are as per today’s world, be it comic books or animated TV Series or any other.”

Changes in work environment…

Talking about change in work environment, Arpit shares, “We believe if our team members are happy from inside, we get the best out of them. We work with people and try to understand their requirements. We work together as one – If people in my organisation are happy – my work environment changes automatically and so does my business.”

Market then and now…

“Since the beginning till late 90’s, we have seen the growth at tremendous rate. As time changed, new technology and media came up and created a completely different medium of entertainment for the world – causing a drastic change in print business. We kept changing our planning and development process from time to time. With the development in TV sector, we made many TV shows based on our characters. Today, demand is different, needs are different; entertainment has a new language and we are also changing with this new world. We have recently launched an online reading app where people can read their favourite comics digitally,” he says.

Areas of growth in the industry…

“Technology advancements continue all the time. But in entertainment industry, content is the most important aspect. We, at Diamond Comics, aim to entertain the world with incredible content using new technologies. Probabilities of growth are endless, because digital era has just started in India. We feel entertainment industry in India has the potential to become leading industry player across the globe, all we need is right team and focus. I know we are capable of doing the same and we need blessings of everyone to do it,” tells Arpit.

Road ahead…

“Talking about the future is always exciting. But I believe there should always be some surprise elements in life that would keep people excited and hooked upon. So all I would say is that there are lots of unbelievable surprises coming up from the house of Diamond Comics and based on our experience we are sure people will love them,” tells Arpit.

“We are coming up with a Special Animation Series with one of the leading online players. Plus we are also developing one short animated film which we’ll submit in international film festivals and many more. The latest area of expansion was our online reading app,” concludes Arpit.