We have a three-fold vision – to create awareness among Indians all over the world about their rich heritage and inspire them to become guardians of the same; to share with people the world over, knowledge about this ancient land; and to keep alive this priceless legacy for future generations.
Manjiri Khandekar is the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Heritage India’, a magazine that focuses on ancient Indian heritage, culture and arts. Priced at Rs 180, the quarterly magazine also contains content on flora, fauna and modern art and culture.
Khandekar is a scholarship holder in Ancient Indian Culture & Civilisation from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She also has a PG Diploma in Mass Communications from Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai, and a Masters in French with Distinction from University of Pune.
She has been an academic and has been a Lecturer of French at the University of Pune for the past eight years. She is also the author of a text book for beginners in French, brought out in collaboration with University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Khandekar has travelled extensively across the country as the wife of an army officer. She has also travelled several times to France, Switzerland and Canada for teachers’ training workshops.
In conversation with exchange4media’s Abhijeet Mukherjee, Khandekar speaks about her passion for Indian heritage and culture and the newly-launched ‘Heritage India’ magazine. Q. How did it all start?
As part of a MoU between Pune University, where I teach French at Masters level, and Lausanne University, I co-authored a French text book. This gave me valuable insights into the publication industry, and I came to know the steps involved in launching a magazine.
Q. What is your marketing and communication strategy for the magazine?
We do not have much of a marketing strategy in place at the moment.
Q. Who are your target readers?
It’s a very broad perspective because we have tried to do a survey involving the young and the old, who are interested in reading about our own heritage, foreigners, environmentalists, who are passionate about heritage, and students of history as well.
Q. How important is the content-advertisement mix for a magazine like ‘Heritage India’?
To sustain ourselves financially, I think we should have 15-20 per cent ad content. We hope to keep it at a minimum so that it does not distract from the real content value.
Q. What are the various ways of revenue generation?
From advertisements mostly, but I also hope people would support us at a philanthropic level so that we do not have to resort to other means.
Q. How do you plan to attract the younger generation?
By making the magazine pictorially attractive and providing well-researched interesting content.
Q. Do you think heritage as a topic finds takers in today’s world?
Yes, I’ve been attending history and culture workshops where a lot of people have evinced keen interest. In fact, even people from the science and technology field and people from other countries who work in India want to know about our culture and heritage.
Q. Who all are in the editorial team?
The magazine has an advisory board headed by former Cabinet Secretary BG Deshmukh. Other members on board include eminent personalities like Madhav Gadgil, AP Jamkhedkar, Yogini Gandhi, Parimal Chaudhari, MK Dhavlikar, GB Deglurkar and Ninad Bedekar.
Q. How will Intach support the magazine?
Intach has been associated with promoting arts, culture and heritage for years. They have given us a platform here to make a presentation. I am very grateful to them for all this.
Q. At a time when the market is full of magazines, which also indirectly cover culture and heritage, what is ‘Heritage India’s USP?
While there are a lot of magazines dedicated to travel and tourism, there are not many publications dedicated just to heritage. Some of them cover contemporary India and India in the future, but none of them cover heritage as such. Though India is a treasure-house of heritage, most of the knowledge is restricted to scholars and academicians. Today, very few students take up subjects like ancient Indian culture and history. There is a probability that this rich heritage might fade away. The articles are well-researched and written by experts in different subjects, backed by visually rich photographs, maps and sketches.
Q. What prompted you to launch this magazine? What do you plan to achieve through this magazine?
It was a long cherished dream to help discover, through the pages of a magazine, the magnificent treasures of India. We have a three-fold vision – to create awareness among Indians all over the world about their rich heritage and inspire them to become guardians of the same; to share with people the world over, knowledge about this ancient land; and to keep alive this priceless legacy for future generations. I am a student of ancient Indian cultural history, and I felt there are no publications along this line in our country which bridges the gap between academic, scholarly content and visually attractive popular reading material.
The idea of ‘Heritage India’ came to my mind over 25 years ago when I elected to do my graduation in Ancient Indian Culture. While growing up in Mumbai, I had never actually seen anything that I had read about. It was during my travels as an army officer’s wife that I saw elements of Indian heritage. It was then that the idea to start a magazine struck my mind.
Q. How do you plan to promote this magazine / concept?
We have signed up with bookshops. We have signed up contracts with Landmark, Outlook Group for a pan-India distribution. We are also looking for institutional sales to consulates abroad and Indian embassies abroad. The response is tricking in and we hope it would grow. We have also tied up with local booksellers, especially in Chandigarh and Thiruvananthapuram. The company is looking for tie-ups with hotels and subscription-based readership.
Q. What are the various issues and topics covered by ‘Heritage India’?
The magazine deals with topics such as festivals, civilisations, wildlife, personalities, ‘We the People’, monuments, performing arts, arts and crafts, heritage stories, heritage features and Naturescape. The 100-odd pages of the magazine contain not only in-depth articles on Indian culture, art and heritage, contributed by research scholars and experts, but also provide a visual treat to the eyes through its photographs.