Though scorned by literary types, millions of readers across the Hindi belt devoured pulp fiction with little discernment or care for literary quality. Those who have witnessed its glory days still seem overtaken by its allure. Among them is Vishi Sinha, a voracious reader of these novels, and also the manager of Surendra Mohan Pathak fan club in Delhi. “Those days it was pretty common to walk into a railway compartment and find every other person immersed in these novels,” he recalls.

The dull story of pre-reforms India can be distilled through pulp fiction. In the days before satellite TV, the evocative romanticism and excitement in these novels pervaded the lives of middle and lower-middle classes. Men - mostly men - drew excitement from these stories, and made them staunch partners on mofussil train journeys. Women, stuck in dreary realities of homemaking, too sought refuge in their pages on lonely, lazy afternoons. For many, especially in the back of beyond, only pulp fiction provided the roller-coaster ride, the shakes and jerks emanating from printed words sending a frisson through their cheerless lives.

Among the 100-odd authors writing in the genre, a few gained immense popularity and fan following. Most well-known among them were Surendra Mohan Pathak, Ved Prakash Sharma, Ranu, Gulshan Nanda, Parashuram Sharma, Anil Mohan and Colonel Ranjit, the last one a pseudonym. While most authors wrote crime thriller novels — hugely popular among men — Ranu, Gulshan Nanda and Raj Kamal gained a fan-following among women and college students for their stories on social topics.

Authors too churned out books at an amazing rate, with widely-read ones such as Surendra Mohan Pathak and Ved Prakash Sharma releasing one every month. Famously, Pathak’s Paisath Lakh Ki Dakaity published in the 1970s had pre-booking orders in thousands. Its first print run of more than 1 lakh copies flew off the shelves within the first few days of its release. Reportedly, the book has sold more than 2.5 million copies and has had 21 print runs since it was first published.

While big names earned more money, publishers would pay up to Rs 10,000 per book to even new writers, such was the demand.

That’s the story of the 1970s and 80s. The era of Hindi pulp fiction. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.

The Struggle for Survival

Facing book publishers and sellers is the challenge of staying afloat. As sales at brick-and-mortar stores fall, some are even exploring the internet as an avenue. Ravi Pocket Books is about to launch an app called Book Madari as a common sale point for books of various genres, including novels. Publishers in Meerut who have stopped publishing pulp fiction have moved on to the more flourishing business of competitive exam books. The ones who are still active have branched out to other in-demand genres.

While most existing publishers have shut shop, a few new entrepreneurs have done their bit to revive the crime-fiction genre. One such venture is Sooraj Pocket Books. The publication, operating from Mumbai, has re-published works of popular writer Parshuram Sharma.

Though keen to tap the Hindi market, SPB’s owner Shubhanand is careful to mention that they have retained the crime-thriller nature of stories, not the content or quality of ‘pulp literature’. “We publish our books on white paper. Readers are also aspirational investors, they don’t want to be seen with books printed on pulp paper,” he says. Books from SPB’s stable are mainly available online.

The transition from cheap pulp to costlier white paper has also taken these books from roadside stalls to online stores and bigger bookshops. This also means increased costing, making competition difficult for the traditional publisher who made money by printing these books on cheap paper.

As of now, the traditional pulp fiction publisher is staring at an uncertain future, but it may be some time before the genre-defining crime thriller novels fade into oblivion.