Sessions
Into the Street the Piper Stepped: On Children’s Literature
Gautam Padmanabhan, Reena Puri, Sudeshna Shome, Tina Narang, with Vidhi Bhargava
Bio
Gautam Padmanabhan is the Business Head of Westland Books at Pratilipi. With an illustrious career spanning over three decades, Gautam stepped into the world of publishing in 1987 as the Director of East West Books. In 1994, East West Books launched Westland Books in partnership with the Landmark retail chain which opened up the Indian market for the import and distribution of US- published books. In 2005, Westland was acquired by Tata Trent. In this phase, Gautam pivoted the quiet literary house to a more diverse and ambitious platform, acquiring key authors such as Amish, Ashwin Sanghi, Rujuta Diwekar, Devdutt Pattanaik and others, as well as licensing the bestselling ‘Chicken Soup’ series for India, and developing an array of India-specific titles for the brand. In 2017, after Westland was acquired by Amazon, Gautam returned to his passion for literary and narrative-non-fiction books, while also setting new market standards for commercial fiction and non-fiction publishing.
In 2022, Westland joined hands with Pratilipi. In his new role, too, Gautam is focused on building on Westland Books’ key strengths and also looking to expand the scope of traditional publishing with the newer modes of storytelling that the world of Pratilipi opens up.