A young reader going through Chetan Bhagat’s novel 2 States and (below) novels that were made into films in the recent years displayed at a bookstore-cum-coffee shop in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 31: Voracious readers may not be very appreciative of the movies made on several tomes, but the celluloid adaptations are actually helping in increasing the sale.

The recently released romantic comedy drama The Fault in Our Stars has shot up the sale of the book penned by John Green on which the film is based. A popular bookstore-cum-coffee shop at Jayadev Vihar has already gone out of stock.

“We had about 25-odd copies in the store. All of them were sold. We received over hundred enquires regarding the availability of the book. We are waiting for fresh stocks to arrive,” said the manager of the bookstore.

The fact that the American film, into its third week here, is still running at the city’s only multiplex talks volumes about its popularity among the residents. Sujit Mahapatra, who founded the Bakul Children’s Library, said either a movie based on novel or death of its author suddenly creates an urge among the people to read the tome.

“Someone told me that he developed a deep sense of respect for Chetan Bhagat after watching Kai Po Che. Similarly, after Gabriel Garcia Marquez passed away, everybody wanted to read his books,” he said.

Mahapatra has observed a complete opposite trend, too. “A movie can also be detrimental to the book. People want to know the story told in a book by watching the film made on it. This way the hours of reading is compressed to a three-hour film,” he said.

Many other bibliophiles, however, are of the view that a movie makes sure that the book it is inspired from jumps the queue of the “books to read” list. Om Prakash, who runs one of the oldest bookstores in the city, the Modern Book Depot at Master Canteen, said whenever a movie based on a book releases, the hype revolving it ensures a marginal hike in the book sale.

“While some are interested in knowing the characters better, others just want to be part of the fad. In both cases, books fly off the shelves,” he said.

Prakash has also received requests for the book series A Song of Fire and Ice by author George R.R. Martin after the television series based on it titled Games of Thrones became a rage.

While Bhagat’s novel 2 States that saw celluloid adaptation this year with Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt playing the lead got the book once again entering the list of popular tomes, upcoming film on boxer Mary Kom has spurted the sale of her autobiography, Unbreakable.