Manipal Technologies ensures top-level security for Potter book

Harry Potter is back.

The print-production of a Harry Potter book requires a Harry Potter-esque level of security not just among the publisher but also print supplier Manipal Technologies. The PrintWeek India Company of the Year in 2015 based in Manipal has printed and produced Harry Potter and The Cursed Child within 10 days – only one among three print companies in the world to do so. And the phenomenal sales of the title on day one have already resulted in reprint orders.

01 Aug 2016 | By Priya Raju

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

A visibly delighted and elated Shashi Ranjan, vice president and business head at Manipal Technologies, said, “Now we can talk about it. We are one of the only three presses worldwide to be entrusted the job, and the only one in Asia. Incredibly they are all sold. We are proud to be involved in the successful delivery of this phenomenon!”

Ranjan added, "As with the majority of the Potter books, details of Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, have been closely guarded prior to its launch and there was an enormous amount of secrecy which was ensured on the production floor." This meant the warehousing was under 24/7 lock-and-key in order to ensure no access to the production floor; no cell phones and no casual visitors."

This time, it was very difficult to produce this title. Everyone in the factory knows about Harry Potter and keeping it confidential till the release was a huge task, especially in this age when social media so active. But hats off to the operation team, they did it once again. Practically entire factory was shelled for a month.
Shashi Ranjan, vice president, and business head at Manipal Technologies

JK Rowling has stated in her pre-launch interview that Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is not an eighth Harry Potter novel, but the fans like Manu Choudhury of CDC in Kolkata do not care. The “book” is actually the script of a two-part play. The playscript has been written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by Thorne, John Tiffany and Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series, which has led to films and a theme park and a Broadway play.

Reviews of the play are full of praise. “Quite simply, spellbinding,” Variety said. A “thrilling theatrical spectacle,” added the Guardian.

A Potter-head who loves the Potter mania surrounding the book, the 30-year old Choudhury, said, “It has been nearly 20 years since the first book and almost 10 years since the publication of Deathly Hallows. I am hoping to read the book in a day or two, savouring each and every word. Since according to JK Rowling, Harry may be done now”.

In 2012, Manipal Technologies had produced 80,000 copies of The Casual Vacancy which was JK Rowling’s first post-Potter novel, published by Hachette UK subsidiary Little, Brown and Company.

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