Harry Potter fans across the country enthusiastically snapped up copies of the final volume of the book, which broke all records to register a sale of over 1.7 lakh copies on the first day of its release.

''Never in the publishing history has India witnessed such a frenzied reaction to any book. We have already sold over 1.7 lakh copies today,'' said Himali Sodhi, Head of Marketing, Penguin, which is the distributor of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Potter fans, both young and old, queued up outside book stores since midnight to lay hands on the book, the seventh and last one in the series, to know the fate of boy wizard Harry and his deadly foe Voldemort.

''I was here at 6 in the morning and quickly read the last few pages. We have been receiving pre-orders as early as March this year,'' said Nitin Chatterjee, Store Manager, Oxford bookstore.

British author JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published by Bloomsbury and brought to India by Penguin, is priced at Rs 975.

The customers, who have placed advance orders, get a discount varying from 5-25 per cent.

Internationally, the final Potter book has become on-line retailer Amazon's most pre-ordered product with almost 1.6 million copies bought globally ahead of the release.

The six books published thus far have sold 325 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 64 languages, while four films have grossed $3.5 billion worldwide.

Harry Potter fans living in Kabul were delighted to be able to get their hands on copies of the latest title Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the same day that the book hit shops elsewhere around the world.

Flights into Kabul are infrequent, but an international freight forwarding company, Paxton International, did Potter lovers a favour by shipping in dozens of copies from Dubai on an early morning flight.

source : NDTV INDIA

There's never been anything like Harry Potter.

"I think of Rowling as being almost the Second Coming," says Scott Rice, professor of literature at San Jose State University. "Her books have reminded people of the pleasure of reading, gotten millions of kids all around the world to know the reward of reading. People need to be reminded there are rewards and benefits in reading that you don't get anywhere else."

Young wizard Potter is about to cast another spell. Legions of his fans are eagerly waiting for July 21, the day when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and last book in J.K. Rowling's series, will be released.

What started in 1997 as a modest publication of a children's book in England has become a literary, financial and pop culture phenomenon.

It's a phenomenon fueled by fans such as Jonathan Weed of San Jose, who was 10 or 11 when he first read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

"I liked it right away," says Weed, now 19 and a student at Princeton University. "My mom got it for me on a Friday. By Saturday night I had finished and was ready to start reading it again."

Then in 1998, Weed's father picked up a copy of the second book, "Chamber of Secrets," in England before it was available in the United States.

That same year, Weed was one of the lucky few who went to Hicklebee's Books in San Jose to meet Rowling. He shared memories of that book signing for a story in the Mercury News in June.

In an e-mail, Weed wrote about meeting Rowling: "Before I left, I asked her to sign a Post-it note for me to give to a British girl at school, the only other person I knew who had read the Harry Potter book. The Hicklebee's staff said that this wasn't allowed, but Jo did it anyway. I gave the note to the girl later, and though she probably didn't keep it, I'm sure by now she wishes she had. "

The magic of numbers

In the mid-'90s, Rowling had been given an advance of about $2,250 by her publisher and a grant of about $12,000 from the Scottish Arts Council that helped her finish the first book in a planned seven-book series.

The book's premise didn't seem that promising: a young British boy is surprised to learn he is a wizard and that he is a key part of a major war between good and evil.

But it struck a chord. Nine years later, thanks to the Potter series, Rowling is a billionaire.

Try to quantify the impact of the Potter series, and the numbers become mind-boggling:

There are 121.5 million copies of Harry Potter books in the United States alone. Worldwide, it's 325 million copies in 65 languages in more than 200 territories.

Twelve million copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at this moment are being delivered in sealed cases to bookstores around the United States, where they will be distributed starting at 12:01 a.m. July 21. Millions of other books are also on their way in Great Britain, and millions more will be distributed around the planet.

That many copies of a single book have never been published in such a short period of time. By July 22, "Deathly Hallows" will break the previous record for most books sold in 24 hours, a record set by Book 6 in the series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." That book broke the previous record, set by Book 5, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which broke the record set by Book 4, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

"Goblet of Fire" and the first three, "Sorcerer's Stone" (known as "Philosopher's Stone" in Britain), "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" changed the way the New York Times formed its bestseller lists. (The Times created a children's books list and put the Potter books on it.)

The reach of Harry Potter

Beyond the sales numbers, one also can argue that no other book has gotten more families to read together, or been more discussed in print, on the Internet, in bookstores and libraries, and around office water coolers.

Valerie Lewis of Hicklebee's was working for CBS in New York when she became one of the first major media journalists to bring attention to Rowling and Harry Potter. She remembers being happily surprised, as a bookseller, by the reaction to "Sorcerer's Stone."

"That families suddenly discovered that reading together made sense was probably the biggest shock of all to us."

"There's nothing I can think of that compares to reading aloud to children and having them read aloud to you," Lewis says. "What happens is you get to know them at a whole different level. The literary stuff, the academic stuff, is not as important as sitting around finding out what they think."

And at a time when children are bombarded with images from television, movies and video games, Lewis values the way literature gives children the experience of creating images themselves.

"Reading aloud, the kids experience forming their own images," Lewis explains. "They hear a sophisticated vocabulary . . . and there is an undercurrent that this is cool - they are doing it together, and it's just right."

Harry Potter found another welcoming fan base on the Internet. A Google search for "Harry Potter" brings up more than 6 million results.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Web sites are home to communities of people who have spent years thinking about, discussing and arguing about the series that began when "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published in June 1997 in England.

"It's a very attractive world for children," Weed says of the Harry Potter books. "When I was in the sixth grade, a school fantasy is to be transplanted from where you are to a place where your job is to have fun and do magic all day - structured around the school year. It is sort of the alternate education fantasy."

The mystery of Book 7

Until July 21, the world waits and wonders how Rowling will wind up her seven-book story of "The Boy Who Lived."

Will Harry live or die? Will the evil dark wizard Voldemort be vanquished?

To San Jose State's Rice, the theme of good vs. evil in the Harry Potter story is a powerful, relevant one in today's world.

"There are Voldemorts out there in different sizes and shapes doing bad things to human beings," he says, "and we can look the other way or we can use our powers to intervene."

And, the book's other themes also are appealing, Rice says.

"Friendship is practically a sacrament. These people do things for their friends, including risk their lives in a very serious sense."

There's also Hogwarts - the school of wizardry in the books and among the finest facets of the books, Rice says.

"Hogwarts is a benevolent place. It's a school for wizards, but it's understood by the students that the teachers are trying to empower them and to give them more control over their lives," he says. "It's grinding work, some of the teachers are taskmasters, but it's understood that Hogwarts is a good place."

For fans, part of the fun has been the exciting anticipation of each new book in the series.

"Anandi," who posted on the Mercury News Harry Potter blog (http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei), speaks for many others: "Another Magical Person here, who came late to the Harry Potter party. I heard all the hype and thought the books couldn't possibly be that good. So I didn't read the first one until well after Book 4 was released. But it was great having several to read all at once, and it was painful waiting for the release of 5, 6 and now 7."

The fifth Harry Potter fantasy adventure, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is far and away the best so far.

Trailer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The fifth Harry Potter fantasy adventure, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is far and away the best so far.

In glorious contrast to the previous film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - the one mis-step in the series - Phoenix is a breathlessly paced, dramatically rich, plot-driven thrill ride of spectacle and pathos.

Directed by David Yates, Phoenix completes Harry's transformation from nervous schoolboy to rebel leader, and sets the effects-crammed cinematic stage for the apocalyptic duel between good and evil that is to come.

Phoenix finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) at a critical point in his odyssey. His noseless nemesis Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is back on the scene, preparing to raise an army so he can literally raise hell. Having murdered Harry's parents, Voldemort is keen to finish the job in as public and violent a fashion as possible.

And Harry is ready for him. No longer the timid, round-faced boy wizard from The Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Chamber of Secrets (2002), the rebellious spirit we saw emerge in the outstanding Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is now in full flourish.

Harry won't be pushed around any more, not even by Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), his long-time enemy at the impressively located Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In Phoenix, Harry stands up for himself, for others, repeatedly defies authority and talks back to teachers. He doesn't even seem to respect the school's dress code much any more.

This puts Harry in conflict with the story's other evil, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton, in a scene-stealing turn), the new teacher at Hogwarts sent by the interfering bureaucrats at the Ministry of Magic. A lover of tea, pink dresses, meowing cats and firm discipline, her purpose is to usurp the authority of headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) by introducing ever stricter rules on the students.

Harry finds the road of the rebel tough going, though. His close encounters with Voldemort have made him susceptible to mind control, so as Harry trains his army, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) trains Harry to deal with his inner demons, which he must learn to control lest his behaviour be driven by pure impulse, which can lead to the dark side of human nature.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The "battle of the self" has become the dramatic theme of choice for blockbuster franchises. We saw it in the early Superman films, it runs throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's the conceptual pivot of Star Wars (of course) and it even got a big spin in Spider-Man 3. Now, it seems, it's Harry's turn to get introspective. It's as though Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins and Peter Parker are cousins. Or members of the same group therapy session.

Phoenix has a few light touches early on, but the humour that laced previous Potter films has been replaced with a darker, more brooding tone. Indeed, Phoenix is similar in feel to Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, which is appropriate as both are essentially about gear shifts of the soul.

One presumes that children who were about the same age as Radcliffe when the first film came out will be able to handle the effects-laden horror imagery served up in massive doses by Phoenix. That said, parents are advised to take the M rating seriously. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is definitely not a film for children or sensitive tweens. If you have doubts, please see it first or wait for the DVD. Some of the sequences are intense, even for grown-ups.

And - yes - somebody close to Harry does die, and Yates manages to stage the death in the middle of a swirling special effects set-piece with considerable dramatic force. Reminiscent of the killing of Michael Corleone's daughter at the end of Godfather III, it ranks as the most heart-stopping dramatic moment in the saga thus far.

Source : The Age

Radcliffe briefly spoke to the crowd in Japanese Potter film clips

Actor Daniel Radcliffe was met by hundreds of fans as he attended the world premiere of the fifth Harry Potter film in Tokyo.

Japanese competition winners were among the first to see The Order of the Phoenix movie.

Radcliffe, 17, greeted the crowd in Japanese, saying "Nihon no minasan, Konnichiwa" (hello, people of Japan).

The UK premiere of the film will be held in London on 3 July, and it opens in cinemas on 11 July.

Radcliffe, accompanied by the film's producer David Heyman, was the only one of the film's main stars to make the journey to Tokyo.

He was introduced on to the red carpet amid plumes of smoke and pyrotechnics.

"It's wonderful to come over here and to say hello," said Radcliffe.

"I hope people will be impressed by the new characters, the new performances, and the big battle."

Potter fans gathered to show their appreciation

First kiss

In the movie, Harry experiences his first kiss, with schoolmate Cho Chang, played by actress Katie Leung. Radcliffe has admitted kissing on screen was nothing in comparison to stripping off on stage, as he did in the West End play Equus.

"Once you've been on stage naked in front of 1,000 people you really feel you can do almost anything without inhibition," he told the BBC News website.

"Kissing Katie was a very, very comfortable experience, especially when compared to being naked on stage and blinding horses."

The latest of the Potter film sequels is being released just weeks before the long-awaited seventh and final book is published, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

SOURCE : BBC NEWS

The three actors have starred in the films since 2001

Dark clouds are gathering over Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The fifth film to be adapted from JK Rowling's books - released on 11 July - is the grittiest yet, as Harry battles with the angst and growing pains of teenage life.

And while the film echoes the growing age of the young cast, actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint will be wearing school uniforms for at least another two years.

Rowling brings the magical saga to an end in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published on 21 July.

It will mark the finishing line for the trio, who have played Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley since 2001.

Radcliffe, 17, says he has no idea what to expect from the final book, but has pre-ordered a copy.

"We can sit here and talk about it but Jo is coming to come up with something far more interesting or exciting than anything we can predict and imagine," he says.

I hope Hermione doesn't die - I really didn't have that in my plan for what she would achieve Emma Watson

Rowling has already hinted that two main characters will die in final instalment, but has not revealed who.

Watson is tempted to take a sneaky peek to see if it is Hermione who meets a sticky end.

'Beautiful babies'

"I hope Hermione doesn't die - I really didn't have that in my plan for what she would achieve," she says.

"I want to see her putting her intellect and her very caring nature to some very worthy cause - going around the country protesting for the rights of house elves, or continuing with SPEW and generally making the world a better place. Being married to Ron and having beautiful babies."

Grint, 18, is more succinct: "If Ron had to die it wouldn't be so bad - it's the last one anyway."

The latest Harry Potter film is the fifth in the series, and sees the franchise's fourth director at the helm, with David Yates following in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell.

Daniel said he enjoyed portraying Harry's troubled teenage years

Yates, best known for TV dramas such as The Girl in the Cafe and State of Play, has combined aspects of previous films with his own take on Harry's character, explains Radcliffe.

"I think this is the film I'm most proud of and we had a great time working with David," he says.

"He has taken the charm of the films that Chris made, the visual flair of what Alfonso did, and the thoroughly British bombastic nature of the fourth film, and added his own sense of grit, and realism to it that perhaps wasn't there so much before."

Watson, 16, says it is the most "genuine" of all the films.

"The word I connect the most with David Yates is 'truth'," she adds.

"He always wanted to find truth in all the characters. We really relished that and it stopped us getting complacent."

Reflective

Radcliffe says one of his greatest challenges was tackling the more troubled and complex side of the teenage Harry.

"I talked to Jo (Rowling) about it, and she said if people say they don't understand why he is angry then they have not understood what he has been through in the last five years," he explains.

"He has a right to be angry. For me it was just as interesting to play the reflective side of the anger, where it comes from like the loneliness and feeling misunderstood, than the out-and-out shouting that people may have interpreted from the book."

It was Gary Oldman, who plays Harry's godfather Sirius Black, who inspired him.

"Me and Gary got to do some really emotional and heartfelt scenes together, which was great," Radcliffe says.

Hermione and Ron sign up for Dumbledore's Army

"I have been a fan of his for a long time, and I think anybody would be hard-pushed to name another actor whose body of work covers so many different areas. I think he is incredible."

On-screen kiss

The Order of the Phoenix also stars Oscar-nominated Imelda Staunton as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge, and Helena Bonham Carter as the demented Bellatrix Lastrange.

It also sees Radcliffe share his first on-screen kiss.

But kissing Katie Leung - who plays fellow Hogwarts pupil Cho Chang - was easy compared to stripping off on stage, as he did in the West End play Equus.

"Once you've been on stage naked in front of 1,000 people you really feel you can do almost anything without inhibition," he laughs.

"Being naked was possibly not as complicated as kissing - although belt buckles can give everybody a bit of trouble at times - but kissing Katie was a very, very comfortable experience, especially when compared to being naked on stage and blinding horses."

Leung, 19, who won the part of Harry's girlfriend after an open audition, says he was a "good kisser".

"I only watched the film yesterday and I thought I'd be cringing, but I'm very pleased with it. It's a very endearing and sweet scene," she says.

"I'm not sure how my mum and dad are going to react. Hopefully they will find it really sweet as well."

SOURCE : BBC NEWS

Wands at the ready: Harry leads his Dumbledore's Army cohorts

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which opens in cinemas in July, sees Harry's school friends taking a more central role in the battle against the evil Lord Voldemort.

Calling itself Dumbledore's Army, the group meets in secret to learn how to battle the Dark Arts.

Actors Bonnie Wright, 16, (Ginny Weasley), Matthew Lewis, 17, (Neville Longbottom), Katie Leung, 19, (Cho Chang) and newcomer Evanna Lynch, 15, (Luna Lovegood) are all members of the Army.

They talk to BBC News about being fans of the schoolboy wizard, and what it is like being part of the Potter phenomenon.

Bonnie: I am definitely as fanatical as many of the other fans out there. I really enjoy the books and I can't wait for the last one.

Evanna Lynch beat 15,000 hopefuls to land the part of Luna Lovegood

Evanna: When I was about eight I was stuck in a phase of reading Tintin books but my mum wanted me to read something else. She said "there is this great book called Harry Potter", but I said I didn't want to read about a boy with glasses - I just thought it sounded silly.

Then she read me a chapter and I took it from her, because I loved it - and Tintin took the bottom shelf.

Matthew: I've been acting since I was five, doing Heartbeat and that kind of thing, and when I got to the age of 11 I had already read the books - I was a massive fan.

I heard they were making a film and I just wanted to be in it in some way. Even just as an extra, it would have been perfect.

Bonnie: I heard they were auditioning, and I think it was more a case of "why not go for it?".

Matthew (r) is one of the original cast members

I always really enjoyed being in school plays, and the teamwork involved, but when I went I suppose I never really thought I'd get the role. After I got it there was a moment when I thought "can I do this?".

Evanna: I saw a poster advertising open auditions for Luna. Also I had sent tapes to the casting agent saying that I wanted to play her.

When they told me I had it, I couldn't believe it... I was waiting for her to call back and say: "I was only joking!"

I had to keep it quiet for a few days, but when I told my friends they were very, very excited.

Matthew: I took a day off school to go to the open audition in Leeds.

I was in there about two minutes and read a paragraph from the book. About two or three months later they asked me to come down to London for a recall for Neville Longbottom.

From getting to meet Chris Columbus [director of the first two films], to having a screen test, to actually getting the part happened in the space of about two or three days. To get that call was just great. I was jumping up and down on the sofa going crazy.

Harry has to deal with his emotions as well as evil wizards

Matthew: I love comedy, I love making people laugh - but what I really loved this year was tackling the emotional side of Neville.

That was a big challenge for me because Neville has always been a light-hearted, humorous character and I have never had to do anything as deep and emotional as that before.

Katie: Kissing Harry! I was so worried it was going to go wrong and that we would bang heads or something.

I think it was more awkward beforehand knowing it was going to come up, but we had a chat beforehand and had a laugh, asking each other if we'd brushed our teeth.

Bonnie Wright has starred in all of the Harry Potter films

Bonnie: It has definitely made me more confident. When I was younger - I started when I was nine - I was very timid and shy. We have all grown up in it together and are really comfortable with each other.

Matthew: Some of us shave now! We come in and the make-up ladies say 'I'm sick of shaving you, will you just do it before you come in?'.

Even if it's just a little bit of bum fluff they have to get rid of it.

Bonnie: Sometimes I get recognised and I don't think you can ever get used to that.

Katie Leung's character Cho is Harry Potter's girlfriend

It is always in places you don't expect. You can be on holiday and someone randomly comes up to you. It has made me aware of how big the audience is for Harry Potter.

Matthew: The things I have experienced and the places I have been are just incredible.

I have to spend a lot of time away from home, so I miss my friends a lot. I get quite homesick, but the pros just outweigh the cons.

When I go to parties back home, my friends say "guess what, he's in Harry Potter" because it's a great good way of getting in with girls.

It's a good way to start a conversation but I like to quickly get away from it. There's a little bit more to me than just Harry Potter.

Katie: I had a lot of positive feedback, fan-mail and stuff. I don't get recognised very often, if anything I'm just more confident now. I used to be really shy so it's a really good thing.

SOURCE : BBC NEWS