The first books under the imprint are crime novels Ghalib Danger by Neeraj Pandey and A Convenient Culprit by Vibha Singh. Both have strong roots in Bollywood as director and script writer, respectively. In response to the query sent by PrintWeek India, Penguin India confirmed that Ghalib Danger will be launched in December. The company also shared that they plan to launch around four books in a year under this new imprint.

The press statement issued by the company quotes S Hussain Zaidi and said, “All writers wonder what it’s like to be on the other side of publishing. Having written many books on crime and worked closely with the Bombay film industry, I wanted to create an imprint that would reflect the best of both crime writing and Bollywood.” 

Zaidi is a well-known author of renowned gangster novels Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia and others. Zaid’s job will encompass selecting authors and finalising ideas with them, while the editorial and marketing operations will be handled by Penguin India.

This is the first new imprint launch by Penguin India since its parent company Penguin merged with former rival Random House in early July this year.