New Delhi, June 14: Sahil Bharadwaj is your typical boy next door. In the ninth standard, he looks forward to the summer holidays more than any other time of the year. He really, really hates homework, but is forced to go through the motions every night before he goes to sleep. And he loves Harry Potter. So much so that his father had to book in advance the fifth book in the Rowling series.
Sahil is not alone. Millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide are breathlessly awaiting the June 21 release of Order of the Phoenix. The book comes three years after the release of The Goblet of Fire.
With 750 pages and 38 chapters, the book is priced at a special Indian price of Rs 795, as against its cover price of £16.99 (Rs 1,340). "Rowling has made us wait too long," says Sahil, echoing the sentiment of all fans.
While amazon.com, the largest online retailer, says advance orders for the latest Harry Potter instalment are surging, and now top the one million copies mark, already making it the fastest selling new product ever to appear on the site, stores in Delhi have already placed their advance bookings. Managers are busy creating the extra space needed and attending to many calls, about the book of course.
Says Himali Sodhi, Public Relations Manager, Penguin India, "Advance orders for The Order of the Phoenix have been phenomenal and are still coming in. The count is expected to touch the 60,000 mark. This is double that of the previous hardback release in 2000. We estimate an advance booking of 70,000 copies by its launch date."



Though this is not the biggest selling book ever - as in lifetime sales - it is easily the largest pre-sold book. "Keeping in mind that Order... is a fiction hardback, this is easily the largest first order scenario for Penguin India," Sodhi tells us.



But why is Potter such a craze? Why is it that readers aged anywhere between 10 and well, very old people, have become diehard Potter fans? Sociologist Prithish Guha explains. "Blame it on our fragmented, stifling post-modern existence. Everybody needs a release. An escape to never never land where eventually, good triumphs over evil. In my opinion any icon who encourages reading is a huge hero. The more this figure is publicised and the more kids learn about the books the better."



In India, Sodhi says, the approximate break up of city order percentages based on the initial order works out to: Delhi 39 per cent, followed by Mumbai at 22 per cent. Chennai comes third with 11 per cent, while Bangalore and Kolkata account for eight per cent each. Hyderabad stands at five per cent.



Region wise, the North leads at 40 per cent. The West stands at 26 per cent followed by the South at 25 per cent. The East accounts for nine per cent of initial bookings.



According to Penguin India sources, Oxford Bombay is conducting a Harry Potter theme evening on June 21, Oxford Kolkata a Harry Potter quiz, the Landmark chain is organising various activities, including a lookalike contest, while Gurgaon's 32nd Milestone is attempting to recreate Potter ambience. The British Council, New Delhi, might display a few copies for their members in their library on launch day while the BBC will screen the first ever exclusive interview with Rowling on June 19, recorded on June 3.



A couple of days later, Rowling will become the first artiste since Madonna to record a live webcast, answering questions from 4,000 children at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The broadcast will be stored online for a week and Microsoft and BT, who are investing a million pounds in the production, expect up to 500 million viewers to log on, the biggest ever web audience.



The marketing blitz is set to confirm Potter as the biggest book and international movie star Britain has ever produced since James Bond.



Says Guha, "I think the character embodies the attributes of the new hero. He's bullied, but does good. Hopefully, it will encourage imaginative thinking among young people."



Amit Vig of Om Book Shop in South Extension tells us that more than a 1,000 pre-orders have already been placed with his store. "With the release date nearing, we are getting between seven to 20 orders a day."



Crosswords at South Extension has started a pre-order scheme. Anand Rawat, the shop's manager, says customers can book their copies, which will then be delivered to their doorsteps on June 21 itself.



Stores are planning discounts. Some, like The Book Mark, plan to offer a 10 per cent discount, others will give away free books. Says Vig, "The book is priced at Rs 795. We will give it away at Rs 595. That is almost a 25 per cent discount. I don't think anybody else will be able to give you a better deal."



Not everybody though thinks of such measures as being necessary. Yatindra of Crosswords for one says they won't be giving away any discounts. "Harry Potter has become so big a brand that even if you do not offer a discount, there will be buyers."



Penguin's Sodhi agrees. "Potter does not really need to be established and with the incredible hype attendant on any new release, half our marketing work is already taken care of. Order of the Phoenix is hype in itself," she points out.



There are conflicting views though regarding the beginning of Potter mania. While Yatindra believes that only after the release of Goblets of Fire, the fourth book in the Potter series, and the Potter films that sales picked up, Amit Vig of Om Book Store disagrees. "Sales went up with the release of the very first book, Philosopher's Stone," says he.



There might be differing points of view about the origin of the craze, but they all agree that the Potter series have brought them some very good business.



And that transcends into good business for providers of Potter accessories as well. Step into any gift shop or bookstore and you will find the boy wizard welcoming you in, embossed on water bottles, pencil boxes, posters, trading card games... and so on.



Khan Market, Connaught Place and GK I being your best examples. The Janata bookshop at Khan Market for example has run out of Harry Potter scarves. Even though original Harry Potter T-shirts are yet to hit the Indian market, there are locally made ones available at Sarojini market.



Such is the craze over Potter that an illegal Bengali translation of the first book, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, as also a brand new text starring the boy wizard, albeit set in Kolkata, was brought out a couple of years back.



"Immediately after Philosopher's Stone, Harry gets on to his Nimbus 2000 broom and zooms across to Calcutta at the invitation of a young boy called Junto," author Urvashi Butalia explained in the BBC's The Ticket programme. "There they get into all kinds of scrapes, they meet all kinds of people, and the story is built up from there."



Butalia added that the author of the fake Potter book had been particularly upset at having his work removed from shelves around India. "He had several more lined up - lots of stories up his sleeve - so he's not really happy at all." Ms Butalia added: "The way the stories have been lifted out of Bengali literature and incorporated into Harry's adventures make them very real for Bengali children."



Unofficial versions of the books continue to be on sale around the world, however. They are especially popular in China, and in Russia, where the hero has changed sex and is known as Tanya Grotter.