Osian launches P and D House, Literary Agency

New Delhi, May 27: With a view to placing the arts and its creative value system in the heart of India's developmental framework, Osian's-Connoisseurs has launched its Publishing and Design House and India's first professional Literary Agency.

''This is an essential step through which the arts and the intelligentsia will once again stake their claim to be placed at the centre of India's socio-eco-political framework,'' Osian's Chairman Neville Tuli said on Friday at the launch.

''Be it literature, poetry and philosophy, if these links are consolidated and each cultural discipline is interlinked with the other in a deeper fashion, the respect for Indian arts and heritage will fundamentally progress,'' the chairman said.

He added that the time for the launch of the Publishing and Design House and the Literary Agency was ideal, and it was another step in integrating the cultural disciplines on material platforms.

While the Publishing Division will focus on illustrated books on art, cinema, architectural heritage, popular culture and philosophy, the Literary Agency will deal with works of fiction and general non-fiction, chiefly biography/memoir, narrative travel writing, current affairs and contemporary issues, Mr Tuli informed.

The chairman said the Literary Agency will represent authors for the sale of rights to their works in India and all major overseas markets, including the UK, the US and Europe.

''What will make the Osian's Literary Agency unique among literary agencies anywhere in the world is that its authors will have access to the organisation's diverse and integrated cultural activities in the spheres of art, cinema, archiving, documentation and finance,'' said Renuka Chatterjee, who will head the Agency.

The Publishing and Design House will have a Merchandising sub-division headed by Geeta Castelino.

''It has been launched so that the common man gets the feel of the arts and cultural heritage through Osian's well designed product range, which will try to resensitise public expectations for the product, Ms Castelino said.

''Osian's has a dual responsiblility towards financial benchmarking and a knowledge-base build-up for making arts financially self-sufficient so that they can build their own infrastructure on their own terms without depending on a patronage,'' Mr Tuli concluded.

UNI