They say that perseverance and patience are the hallmarks of a privileged few – The few who understand the value of life. These folks are intuitively blessed and understand that efforts never fail, provided they are backed by tons of self-belief, character, diligence, and humility.
Ajitabha Bose, Bestseller Author, Film Maker, Designer, Entrepreneur, National record holder, is one of those.
Sharing his secrets of success, this unassuming 28-year-old pocketbook sensation of India says, “I am not a celebrity. I am just a normal person – This was put into my head by my mother Meena Bose when I thought responding to anyone’s comments on my Twitter page is the mark of a person who has arrived,” and laughs at his incredulous assumptions.
The truth is, the ones who have arrived are humble and unassuming. They understand that the journey is exciting, and everything in between is like the beautiful scenery that rushes past you as you drive down the fast lane of life. Ajitabha Bose shares that his journey is essentially that of a filmmaker and not about being a writer. He says, “As a filmmaker, I am yet to experience success.”
Born into a family of theatre personalities from Bengal, Ajitabha’s creativity was nurtured from childhood. As a kid, Ajitabha’s evenings were filled with discussions on Tagore’s poetry, while legends and story narrations by his mother were for bedtime. When he decided to make a career out of his filmmaking, it was naturally a proud moment for Ajitabha’s father Amitava Bose, a renowned theatre artiste.
As a student of Mass Communication in Ghaziabad, Ajitabha Bose excelled in making short films and documentaries with his primitive tools – the likes of Windows Moviemaker – and won accolades from his peers, seniors, and professors at the campus. Motivated by these successes, Ajitabha spent a lot more time understanding the nuances of filmmaking, storytelling, and scriptwriting. He called his student day production house “Bose Documentaries,” Soon, everyone, including seniors, wanted to be part of his team. His college started deputing Ajithabha as their official representative to all college festivals and events.
Ajitabhaose shares, “It was such a wonderful feeling. I loved the attention, and one day, I was sharing one of my scripts with a friend on campus, and he said, why don’t you write a book. This chance comment catapulted me to writing with zealous energy.”
Ajitabha’s first book was hand-made and quite literally “self-published.” He got his first story, printed, photocopied, with a self-designed cover, and got it bound into a book. He gave away 80 copies of this hand-made book to his college mates and friends. Everyone appreciated his storyline and narrative. With that small motivation and validation, a new author was born.
Ajitabha was much more in love with words, and his writing was getting refined by the hour. He was thrilled that one of his short stories got selected as part of an anthology submission a year later. But later, he realized that it was a self-publishing platform, and anyone could’ve gotten
their story published.
With more intuitive interactions with all sections of our society, Ajitabha concluded that even non-readers among young people wanted to read, but fat books were not their type. He wanted to reach out to this audience with stories that they can enjoy in a format that fits their pocket – quite literally. He researched and found that pocketbooks have been in vogue in the UK and the USA for decades but have never hit it off big in India.
He says, “When I suggested this idea to a few publishers, everyone laughed at me. It was frustrating to see that even self-publishing companies did not entertain my idea. What can be more humiliating than this – I had stories to publish, I was willing to pay for the publishing process, and yet I was getting rejected.”
He persisted in reaching out to different publishers, and finally, one publisher, who was relatively new to publishing, agreed to work on his pocketbook idea. The pocketbook “The Pocket Love Story” hit the stands. Ajitabha says, “We sold about 450 copies the first year of publishing the book. We were elated.” The Limca Book of Records applauds his effort as the “First pocketbook author from India.”
One fine week, Shah Rukh Khan entered Ajitabha’s world and waved his magic wand. Ajitabha’s next pocketbook narrated the love story of a girl who, just like, was Shah Rukh’s huge fan. Expecting a sale of 400 books for the year, the publisher printed just 500 books. “The book Ïn Love With Shah Rukh Khan” had a launch ceremony, and the actor tweeted, “Size does not matter when its love.”
The book was a huge hit, and all the 500 copies got sold out within a few hours of release. Ajitabha Bose was overjoyed beyond words. But without copies, they couldn’t capitalize on the buzz that the actor’s tweet created. Ajitabha Bose was also invited to meet the actor, and he says it was a great feeling meeting the very humble Shah Rukh Khan – the man he admires so much.
From selling 7,500 copies of his second book, he became a national bestseller in his third book, “The Best Seller.” The sales
of this title shot through the roof -, as of August 2020, 70,000+ copies have been sold. Ajitabha is now the best-selling author on Amazon Prime, and his subsequent two novels are fast racing to surpass that number.
Ajitabha Bose reminisces that, “This is all happening probably because I promised God that all proceeds of my book sale would be donated to good causes.” Ajitabha shares that he receives 6-figure sum cheques from his publishers every six months. He supports girl-child education, among other causes. During this pandemic, he says, he even supports the families of these beneficiaries.
Not one to romanticize his past difficulties and hardship, he says, “I am living beyond my dreams. I am a small-town boy who struggled a lot in the early days. God has been kind to me. My readers, my family, and friends – everyone has been kind to me.”
What sets him apart from the rich and famous authors is that he understands what defines success. He stays connected with his audience, and they are super happy that he bothered to mention them in a comment or responded to their comment. He says, “My readers are the reason I am successful. I respect that they’ve taken time off their busy lives to read my books and comment about them. The least I can do is acknowledge and thank them for that.”
He prefers not to talk about his charities but says, “This world needs a lot more philanthropy. If my story can inspire someone to earn, share, and support causes, I don’t mind talking about it.”
Ajitabha’s production house BDL Pvt Limited makes short films, advertisements, covers events, generates content for web series, and delivers a myriad of other creative offerings.
He believes that to get successful, one must work hard and persevere with a lot of self-belief. “Luck also plays an important role,” he adds as an after-thought.
Ajitabha Bose signs off with the sage advice,
“It is easy to become successful; it is difficult to maintain success. If you take it for granted, you will be wiped out”.
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