Mumbai: Further cementing its commitment to break barriers of all kinds in order for a variety of stories to reach the largest audience possible, Audible today announced an exclusive deal with Rajpal & Sons. The world’s largest audiobooks platform joins hands with one of India’s oldest and largest literary Hindi publishers, thus giving consumers access to over 230 titles across genres, such as Hindi classic and contemporary literature, self-development, poetry and translations. The catalogue includes over 150 bestsellers, including titles with translations to English, as well as Hindi and Urdu titles.

The deal marks a milestone in Audible’s India journey, which launched in 2018 and has expanded to over 200,000 titles, with over 700 Audible-exclusive deals with Indian authors. This strategic move will allow their consumers to not only access audiobooks in multiple languages, but also further showcases Audible’s ability to understand and cater to the diverse Indian market.

While a robust slate of bestselling authors like Divya Prakash Dubey, Anand Neelakantan and Anu Singh is already available on the service, this partnership will further expand this roster to include classic literary authors like Vishnu S. Khandekar, Khushwant Singh, R.K.Narayan and contemporary authors like Ashok Kumar Pandey, Manisha Kulshreshta, Bhagwant Anmol. In addition, the company recently launched the India-only app, Audible Suno, which provides free access to over 60 exclusive audio shows narrated by India’s most famous voices.

Rajpal & Sons, a publisher of timeless classics, is also been known for their translations of both Indian and international literature, including the Hindi translation of the award-winning title Rue De Boutique Obscure (English translation: Missing Person) by Nobel Prize winning author Patrick Modiano. Some of the popular Hindi titles include Kurukshetra by Dinkar and Meri Priya Kahaniyaan by Amrita Pritam, Lokpriya Shayar Aur Unki Shayari series by Prakash Pandit, Ashadh Ka Ek Din by Mohan Rakesh and Kitne Pakistan by Kamleshwar. This diverse offering will allow Indian listeners to choose the book they would like to experience, language no bar.

Additionally, Audible has signed exclusive Hindi titles from Manjul Publications, the leader in the self-development space, with translations of books such The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, , The Answer (Allan and Barbara Pease), Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell) in the pipeline.

Some of the books being translated exclusively for Audible include Hindi translations of international bestselling titles like The Alchemist and Adultery by Paulo Coelho.

Shailesh Sawlani, Country Head, Audible, stated, “We are very excited about our partnership with Rajpal & Sons, an Indian publishing company with a global legacy. We believe that it will enable our customers to access a whole new world of stories in Hindi. Not only do these include very popular and much loved stories written in Hindi but also translations of popular English works, thus providing easy and convenient access to our non-English readers. At Audible we always keep the customer at the forefront of all our initiatives and I am confident about this association going a long way in making sure we continue delighting our customers.”

Pranav Johri, Partner, Rajpal & Sons, said, “We are always looking for new ways for Indian stories which reflect our rich culture to a global audience, and the partnership with Audible, a pioneer in its space, allows us to do just that. Indian readers can now expect distinctive fiction and non-fiction audiobooks on Audible’s high-quality, user-friendly app. Our endeavor is always to make sure content reaches a wider audience in terms of geographical spread and their preference to consume content over different mediums like print, digital and audio. Our association with Audible is a significant step in that direction.”