The life and times of Ratan Tata: An authorised tell-all book in November

HarperCollins wins publishing rights for industrialist's biography in a reported Rs 2 crore deal

The authorised biography of Ratan Tata, titled Ratan N. Tata: The Authorized Biography, will be published globally in November this year, with HarperCollins announcing that it has acquired the rights for it.

Counted among India’s leading and most influential industrialists, 84-year-old Tata’s biography will be authored by Dr Thomas Mathew, a retired bureaucrat from the 1983 batch of the Indian Administrative Service.

The winning bid amount for the publishing rights was reportedly Rs 2 crore, though HarperCollins did not confirm this. The book will be published globally in all formats -- print, audiobook and e-book.

It promises to contain details of the tycoon’s formative years, stories from the time he spent in America as a student, his return to India and early years with the Tata group, as also his journey of turning the Tata conglomerate into a global colossus with a market capitalisation of over $250 billion and an employee strength of 750,000-plus. Besides his early influences, also expected are little known and unreported details of projects such as the Tata Nano and dramatic events like the ouster of former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Peppered with inputs from a variety of interviewees – from the likes of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Karuna, the janitor at GT Hospital, Mumbai – the book would be a definitive account of Tata’s life and times, his struggles and his contributions to contemporary India. According to the publisher, “As the head of India’s oldest and largest business house, his story also encapsulates the narrative of India’s growing ambitions on the world stage and rising clout in the last few decades”.

Mathew, who met Tata in professional capacity over three decades, said in a press statement, “As part of the research, I benefited from unprecedented access to the records of the conglomerate, the trusts that control it as well as Mr Tata’s personal documents, letters and journals. I also enjoyed virtually unfettered access to Mr Tata himself, who narrated his life story in a tell-all fashion.”

The work on the biography began in 2018.

About the acquisition, Ananth Padmanabhan, chief executive officer of HarperCollins India, said in the statement: “It’s a remarkable book on the life of an inspirational, influential and transformative personality, someone whose words and actions have changed the world around us.” The book, he added, would be published in multiple formats and languages, across geographies.

Udayan Mitra, executive publisher, HarperCollins India, acquired world rights in all languages from Anish Chandy at Labyrinth Literary Agency.