Karthik Venkatesh

He was just 23, but he inspired a following that included Bengal's first novelist, and the mathematician who calculated the height of Everest.

He was among a handful of those who commercialised printing and was responsible for the dissemination of the printed text at affordable prices, thereby democratising access to knowledge, literature and science.

He was the first Indian to ‘make it’ in Hollywood, long before Priyanka Chopra, Om Puri and Irffan Khan became noted actors in the west.