Gandhi Kannadhasan, a lawyer by training, started Kannadhasan Pathippagam in 1977 while still a student. He started by publishing the books of his father, the Tamil poet Kaviarasu Kannadhasan, and after his father’s death moved on to publish books translated from English.
He counts among his authors the late Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, whose autobiography, Wings of Fire, was published in Tamil as Aginsiragugal. Other authors he has published in translation include Agatha Christie, James Hadley Chase, Dr.Wayne Dyer and Loiuse L.Hay.
Mr. Kannadhasan was President of Bapasi from 2006 to 2009, during which he spared no effort to increase the participation at the Chennai Book Fair. A firm believer in the power of technology to make a business more competitive, his was the first website of any Indian language publisher to go live when it did in 1997. He developed e-books in 2012 and those for the mobile platform in 2014. He enjoys reading and wants to inculcate that habit in others too.