In a letter Jawaharlal Nehru writes to daughter Indira from Naini jail in the early 1930s, he says “a firm in Calcutta—Rupa & Co—with a branch in Allahabad, has sent me books from time to time. They have good books as a rule and English publications”. It will be 80 years this month since Rupa & Co set up shop to become India’s largest homegrown, fully family-owned independent publishing house today. Rupa’s chairman R.K. Mehra reinvented the firm by signing on authors like Chetan Bhagat, and now his son Kapish Mehra, managing director, is rising up to the challenge to face larger global giants. Excerpts from an interview to Stuti Agarwal.