The indie publishing house Vitasta made her debut in 2004 with just one book, a commentary on a collection of Mahatma Gandhi’s letters, provocatively titled, Brahmacharya Gandhi and his Women Associates. The ripple this first title made, motivated the publishing house to court controversies for the next sixteen years, giving its readers something to talk about, every year, with every new book, year after year.

In 2012, Vitasta gave India another catchy title, India’s Biggest Cover Up, by the investigative journalist Anuj Dhar. This book stirred a nationwide discussion on the mystery shrouding the disappearance, and possibly, the death of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. It made the reader ask if information about Netaji was deliberately subverted and question the government’s intent. The book is an all-time bestseller and has been instrumental in the declassification of the Netaji papers in government archives.

Led by a feminist entrepreneur, Vitasta is acutely gender sensitive and has brought to her readers a bouquet that includes up-front titles like Menstruation Across Cultures by Nithin Sridhar, how Personal Laws in India are biased against women, No Country for Women by Taslima Nasrin, My God is a Woman and Denied by Allah by Noor Zaheer and The Pink Identity by Neelanjana. Among the latest is The Female Gaze by Shoma Chatterji and The Devi in the Diva by Shyaonti Talwar. Another vial of truth serum is Parents at War: Custody Battles in Indian Courts by the noted lawyer and judge Poonam Bamba.

While the focus has been bad laws, rules and taboos, one of the popular books from Vitasta is Subhash Kashyap’s Constitution of India – A Handbook for Students, not to forget the award-winning inspirational biography by Air Commodore Nitin Sathe titled, ‘Born to fly, Fighter pilot MP Anil Kumar teaches us there is no battle mind cannot win’. The post-pandemic top seller has been Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India, Don't Forget 2004: Advertising Secrets of an Impossible Election Victory, A Samurai Dream of Azad Hind: Rash Behari Bose and Bhārat: India 2.0.

Close to the cultural roots of a diverse nation, this 400-book strong publishing house has given its readers a dozen translations from half a dozen languages including, Ramayana: A Comparative Study of Ramkathas from the Tamil original, Manhunt: Seashore Saga of the Punnapra-Vayalar Uprising from Malayalam, Jangam from the Assamese and The Mystery that is Woman from Bengali by Ashapurna Devi. Lovely fiction and non-fiction that dare the system, Vitasta dreams of bringing many more such fine books to its ever growing and flourishing readership across the world.