Vision Plus
VisionPlus is an eyewear fashion magazine published by FourPlus Media from Mumbai, covering the optical industry with dedicated print editions in India, the Middle East and South East Asia. Describing itself as the number-one eyewear fashion magazine for the optical industry, it reaches eye-care practitioners across 20 countries and complements its print editions with the online platform visionplusmag.com. The magazine is led by its editor-in-chief Siraj Bolar and has been publishing since 2001, recently entering its silver jubilee year.
Overview
VisionPlus occupies a specialist niche at the intersection of fashion publishing and trade journalism. Its subject is eyewear — spectacle frames, sunglasses, lenses and optical instruments — treated both as fashion and as business. The magazine's pages carry eyewear trend reports, brand profiles, designer features, celebrity eyewear watches, optical industry news, interviews with prominent professionals, and coverage of trade events and awards. Its readership is the optical trade itself: opticians, optometrists, distributors, manufacturers and brand representatives.
The magazine publishes in a bimonthly rhythm — six issues a year — with editions tailored to its three regional markets. The India edition, the Middle East edition and the South East Asia edition share the VisionPlus brand while serving distinct trade audiences.
Founding and the Siraj Bolar story
The VisionPlus story begins not in publishing but in advertising. In 1993, Siraj Bolar founded FourPlus Advertising, a small home-based agency he ran with the help of his three college-going sons, creating packaging, promotional materials and jingles for diverse clients. The turning point came when Bolar was introduced to the optical industry, connecting with manufacturers and distributors of spectacle frames and sunglasses. Designing brochures and catalogues for these clients sparked an enduring connection with the world of optics.
What began as a modest family-run advertising agency transformed into a pioneering force in optical industry media across India and the Middle East and North Africa region. Since its inception in 2001, VisionPlus has been dedicated to illuminating every facet of the optical world — from fashion trends and technological innovations to expert opinions and business insights — with a strong emphasis on eye health and the pivotal role of optometrists and opticians in preserving it. As the magazine stepped into its silver jubilee year, it celebrated a journey that began with its editor-in-chief's vision and leap of faith.
FourPlus Media
VisionPlus is published by FourPlus Media, operating as FourPlus Publications, from its Mumbai office at Sahdev, Vishal Nagar, Marve Road, Malad (West). Siraj Bolar is printed and published as the publisher on behalf of FourPlus Publications and serves as editor; the magazine is printed in Mumbai. The company's contact channels — including visionplusmag@fourplusmedia.com for editorial and marketing@fourplusmedia.com for advertising — reflect a publishing operation built around close relationships with the optical trade.
FourPlus Media's portfolio extends beyond VisionPlus. The company previously published the title as OpticPlus before it became VisionPlus, and it later launched You&Eye magazine, broadening its optical publishing stable. With its flagship publication and its newer titles, FourPlus Media has positioned itself as a media house dedicated to making a difference in the optical trade and industry across India, the Middle East and South East Asia.
Print editions across three regions
VisionPlus publishes dedicated print editions for India, the Middle East and South East Asia — a regional structure that reflects the geography of the eyewear trade it serves. The print editions reach eye-care practitioners across 20 countries worldwide, giving international eyewear brands a single publishing partner for reaching optical retailers across a vast and growing market.
The magazine's volume and issue numbering reflect its long run: Volume 20 covered 2021 and Volume 21 covered 2022, consistent with a launch in the early 2000s and a bimonthly schedule. Annual subscriptions for the India edition have been priced at Rs. 1,200 for six issues, with multi-year and lifetime options — a model aimed at the trade professional who reads the magazine as a business tool.
Editorial coverage
The editorial mix of VisionPlus blends fashion journalism with trade reporting. Regular features include eyewear trend forecasts — from bold sunglasses to smart optical frames — special features on industry milestones, brand profiles of luxury eyewear houses, "Eye Matters" health-focused content, fashion-spread style sections, retail tales from opticians, and coverage of expos and exhibitions. Celebrity eyewear watches track the frames worn at events such as the Golden Globe Awards, connecting high fashion to the products stocked by optical retailers.
The magazine also covers the technical side of the trade: instruments and equipment supplements examine advances in refraction and lens technology, while interviews with industry leaders explore the business of optics. Its stories explore the importance of regular eye exams, showcase breakthroughs in refractive technology and examine evolving approaches to visual wellness and design.
The online platform
The VisionPlus print editions are complemented by the online platform visionplusmag.com, which keeps the industry informed around the clock with fashion updates, news, views and reviews, and interviews with prominent professionals in the optical industry. The website extends the magazine's reach beyond its print circulation, serving as a daily touchpoint for trade readers between issues and carrying the brand's journalism to the 20 countries its print editions reach.
The digital presence also includes flipbook editions of the print magazine, allowing readers to browse full issues online — a bridge between the traditional trade-magazine format and digital reading habits.
The VP Awards
One of FourPlus Media's most significant industry initiatives is the VP Awards — presented as the first awards of their kind for the Indian optical business. Conceived on the premise that if the Indian film industry has its Filmfare and IIFA awards, the optical industry should have its own honours, the awards recognise the efforts and achievements of the most successful personalities and business houses of the Indian optical fraternity.
The awards give opticians across India a voice: they vote for the products and brands they feel best reflect their customers' tastes, opening a channel of communication from opticians to distributors and brands. Jury meets have brought together eminent retailers — including representatives of GKB Opticals of Kolkata, Gangar Eyenation of Mumbai, Himalaya Optical of Kolkata, S R Gopal Rao Optical of Bangalore and Turakhia Opticians of Chennai — to assess entries from international brands such as Carl Zeiss, Carrera, Mont Blanc, Diesel and Chopard alongside Indian brands including Scott, Sprint, Idee, Image, Suprol and Nevo.
Industry events and the Zeiss 'You&Eye' Awards
VisionPlus closely covers the awards and events circuit of the optical industry. A flagship of this coverage is the Zeiss 'You&Eye' Awards, the optical industry's celebration of retail excellence, whose tenth edition the magazine covered as a special feature — "Opticians, Celebrate the Past, Power the Future" — marking a decade of recognising trust and national achievement in Indian optical retail. The magazine's event reporting, expo coverage and awards journalism make it a chronicler of the industry's institutional life, documenting the gatherings where the trade recognises its own.
Readership and market role
VisionPlus addresses the full value chain of the eyewear business: eye-care practitioners and opticians who sell eyewear, distributors and wholesalers, manufacturers, and the brand houses whose products fill optical stores. By reaching practitioners across 20 countries, it serves as a connective tissue for a trade that spans manufacturing centres, distribution networks and tens of thousands of retail outlets.
The magazine's dual identity — fashion publication and trade journal — reflects the dual nature of eyewear itself: a medical device and a fashion accessory. VisionPlus speaks to both dimensions, informing retailers about the styles their customers will want while keeping them current on the technology and business practices behind the products.
A silver jubilee institution
As VisionPlus stepped into its silver jubilee year, the magazine reflected on a remarkable journey: from a family advertising agency founded in 1993 to a publishing brand that has shaped optical industry discourse across India and the wider region for a quarter of a century. Over the years, VisionPlus has become much more than a magazine — a dynamic platform that informs, inspires and empowers the optical trade.
For an industry that sits at the meeting point of healthcare, fashion and retail, VisionPlus has provided something rare: a dedicated media voice that treats eyewear with the seriousness of a trade publication and the style of a fashion magazine, published continuously from Mumbai for optical professionals across three regions and twenty countries.
