1.What motivates you to write?
ANSWER: I would like to narrate an interesting tale which happened with me many many years back in the year 1983, when I was writing my English exam paper for the 10th Grade/Standard Prelims Exam. And I had to write an Essay titled “AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A RUSTY OLD SWORD”. I don’t know what possessed me, but I wrote an interesting story about how that Sword was possessed by the great king Tipu Sultan and how he fought many wars with it, then the sword was lost and fell into the ocean where a huge mammoth whale swallowed it up and then how a bunch of giant Sting rays attacked the whale and tore it up and the sword sank into the depths of the ocean and then a deep sea diver discovered it on the ocean floor…so on and so forth!....When I got the results, I had gotten full marks for that Essay!! I was happy, my parents were happy, we forgot about it and life moved on. Fast forward to the year, 2009 when I was working with Everest Advertising as their Head of the Films Department, I was hit with a germ of an idea! And I started writing the story, and again, some kind of a spirit possessed me and I churned out a good story and that’s how ARIHANT was born! And that’s when I remembered the 1983 incident and realised that I was born into this world to write, but unfortunately realised it late in life!!! Novels, Hollywood and some Bollywood movies are a great source of inspiration for me. (Sorry for this long answer, but had to confess this to you! J)
2. How did you
feel after publishing your books?
ANSWER: I had to go through a great deal of ordeal for many years before I self-published my first book on AMAZON KINDLE. I was rejected by most of the Traditional Publishing Houses where they used a diplomatic term “Your manuscript does not fit our Publishing Program”. God knows what they meant by that! Then two publishing houses loved my work and one of them even sent me what is known as a “Letter of Intent” stating that I was selected but then, I had to wait in the queue. Then the waiting period crossed more than 5 years and nothing happened!! So yes, I felt like I was on the 7th Heaven, when I self-published my Book ARIHANT- REVENGE PAR EXCELLENCE on AMAZON KINDLE. And this was thanks to my good friend (Ad Film-maker) Shantanu Bagchi’s advice, after I had narrated to him my woeful story. I almost felt like I had won an OSCAR! J
3. What are some of your favourite novels and authors?
ANSWER: I love most of the fictional books by AYN RAND. I also love Sidney Sheldon and Michael Crichton. In my teens I loved all the HARDY BOYS books. I think the author was Franklin W Dixon. And my all time favorite book when I was young was 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by Jules Verne. I must have read that book at least hundred times! There was a phase in my life where I read that book every day for one whole month, without getting bored!
4. Is there a specific reason for naming your novel?
ANSWER: I always knew instinctively that the name of the story should enwrap the entire narrative in a few words and the most important thing which I personally feel is that the Title of the Book should be so different and unique, that it should scream out at you, even if it’s racked up with a thousand books! In my case I thought ARIHANT- REVENGE PAR EXCELLENCE was that perfect title which aptly covered the entire story in a short line and was a very attractive title that could scream out at readers and make them very inquisitive! When a curious reader picks up your book from a stack of hundred books, you know that you have named your Book correctly! J
5. Where do
you write from? Do you go to some specific place, like beachside or the
hills?
ANSWER: I prefer writing from the comfort of my home. Don’t exactly know why, but I prefer writing from my desktop and not my Laptop! It’s weird, I know!
6. What
inspired you to write the books (in general)? Any tales to tell…
ANSWER: The answer to your Question No 1 partly answers this query too! And also watching Hollywood Sci-Fi and action movies. I am a huge fan of directors like Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Martin Brest, Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson. These guys definitely inspired me to imagine!
7. What was
your biggest learning experience throughout the writing process?
ANSWER: I am a self-taught writer. I have never attended any class, lecture, Webinar on Creative Writing, ever! Some of my biggest learning experiences through my writing process was that I realised that one has to have the POWER OF IMAGINATION in order to write a nice story. I also learned that one can always improve a particular Chapter by reading it again and again. I had some experiences, where after finishing off one Chapter, I was still not satisfied. And then I read that particular Chapter umpteen number of times, and slowly the solution dawned on me on how to improvise it. (This was purely my experience. Can’t guarantee it can happen with everyone! J) Another thing I realised that one has to check, check and re-check every Chapter, every sentence before finally publishing it. It has happened with me sometimes, that when I was very excited with an idea to improvise my Chapter, I went on writing it in a hurry, lest I don’t forget it. And afterwards when I re-read it, that particular Chapter was overloaded with Exclamation Marks! That’s when I realised that I tend to put an exclamation mark on every sentence, whenever I get excited!! J
8. Looking back, what did you do right that helped you break in as a writer?
ANSWER: I think I was lucky to have the “Power of Imagination” with me. And a decent command over the language which comes with reading lots of books. My thirst to understand many difficult words in the English vocabulary (In the good old days, I used to keep a physical Dictionary with me whenever I was reading a Novel) also helped a great deal. One cannot be a writer if he or she does not have “THE POWER OF IMAGINATION”. You can get good editors who can improve your writing and grammatical errors, BUT NO ONE CAN TEACH YOU TO IMAGINE! I BELIEVE, THERE IS NO SCHOOL OR TEACHER IN THIS WORLD THAT CAN TEACH YOU TO IMAGINE! It has to be inborn! One has to actually visualize the scene that one is writing and that definitely helps your narrative.
9. Any best piece of writing advice that you would like to share with new or struggling writers?
ANSWER: Ha Ha. I would call myself a new and a struggling writer! So I don’t think I am in a position to advice anybody. But yes, as I said before THE POWER OF IMAGINATION and a NEVER GIVE UP attitude can do wonders in the long run! Keep on writing and writing and enjoy it without thinking about the consequences. Do not keep brooding “What will happen to my writing career? Or will I get that Best Writer’s Prize Award?” Just enjoy the act of writing and sharing the same. And the rest will automatically follow.
10. Something
personal about you people may be surprised to know?
ANSWER: Again an interesting story here. Way back in 1994, I discovered that I could also sing!! Not only did it surprise me, but it also surprised my family and friends. As a hobby, I used to play English songs loudly and sing along with the Lead Singer. Be it George Michael (WHAM) or Roland Orzabal (TEARS FOR FEARS) etc etc. I used to try and imitate them and unknowingly my voice got trained!! I also loved to write lyrics. So I had written a song called HIGH TIDE and I wanted to gift that song to my wife on Valentine’s Day, as it was a romantic song but fast paced. So I collaborated with my Music Director friend Mr Suresh Mendoza who also owned the popular GLAMSLAM Studios (that used to record lots of Ad Jingles and background scores) and he helped me tremendously, to sing this song. For me this was the first time I had opened my mouth to sing in a professional (then) 12 track recording studio! And pitch of the song was quite high! I had a sore throat for the next 2 days, but the song came out pretty good! My family and friends, including me were shell-shocked after we heard it. We all just couldn’t believe it that I had sung it! (Will whatsapp you that song. Just for fun!) This whole incident encouraged me to no end! After that I wrote more lyrics and recorded more songs both in English and Hindi and actually went around the Recording Labels in Mumbai trying to sell myself as a Pop Star!! J (Btw..that time only Baba Sehgal and Alisha Chinai were the only 2 Pop stars that ruled the Hindi charts) One recording Label loved a song of mine and told me to get more songs like that. But unfortunately I ran out of money and dropped the whole idea of becoming a Pop Star!! J But my wife was super thrilled with her Valentine’s Gift! J
I have also dubbed and sang songs for various muppet characters in various languages for the serial SESAME STREET (In Hindi, known as GALLI GALLI SIM SIM) (in the presence of a language supervisor)
11. Any future
books that you would like to discuss now?
ANSWER: After finishing and publishing THE ARIHANT TRILOGY on AMAZON KINDLE, I am now working on my fourth Novel which is a completely different genre than my previous three Novels. And that genre is MURDER MYSTERY. Of course it may be one of the oldest and most published genre, but the subject is very unique and NOT WRITTEN, AT LEAST IN INDIA. Even abroad this subject has been rarely written. It’s quite exciting but sorry can’t disclose anything right now.
12.What other
profession excites you the most?
ANSWER: Film-making and the whole process around the same.
13.Any special mention about your reader (be it with reviews/feedback or anything else)
ANSWER: I have to thank my two brothers-in law Mr Satish Burde and Mr Prasad Anand for encouraging me to write. They took the trouble of buying my books, reading them and posting their comments on AMAZON KINDLE. Also a few relatives and friends of mine who read my books and encouraged me. My friend Chetan Indap who not only read my books and gave me his feedback, but also designed my Book Cover for all 3 Parts of ARIHANT. Thanks to my uncles Mr Arun Nayalkar and Mr Rajesh Bhat Upponi for reading my stuff and giving me their honest comments. Where the latter said “Shubhan. I think you have found your calling.” It was very encouraging. Thanks to Obaid Ansari who made “half a Comic book” of this story, (long time ago) with his beautiful illustrations and coloring. Lastly, I thank some of those Readers who were unknown to me, but took the trouble to compliment me on the story after reading it. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I THANK MY WIFE KAVITA for constantly encouraging and pushing me to write! She still reads my new Chapters and advises me! In fact, she was the one who pushed me to write my first Story. ARIHANT – REVENGE PAR EXCELLENCE. It would not have been possible without her!
14.Do you write the
story at a stretch or you take your time to complete it? If you take a longer time,
wouldn’t you be forgetting the story? How do you tackle it?
ANSWER: I take my own sweet time to write a story. There are days when ideas just keep flowing out of you and then there are days where your mind just stops working! So I don’t force my mind into writing the story because I know the result will be disastrous. Till now, I have taken approximately a year to write each story. There were unusually huge gaps between writing my stories. For e.g I started writing ARIHANT 3 and stopped in 2011, when I got a job and got busy with it. Then I again picked it up in 2020!! In these kind of circumstances, I had to re-write certain Chapters all over again as the technology in the story had advanced by leaps and bounds and I had to update it.
15.Traditional or Self-Publishing? Why?
ANSWER: After experiencing both, I feel that Self-Publishing is the best! As it offers more creative freedom to the writers and also more in terms of Royalty, as it rightfully should be.
16.How is the response so far for the book?
ANSWER: Unfortunately, Luke warm! Reason being the lack of proper advertising
and marketing. I have seen shit stuff being Best-Sellers only because of sheer
Marketing! Also unfortunately, inspite of a lot of searching, I couldn’t find
the right kind of Marketing people who were passionate about selling a good
story! Most of them blandly rattled out their packages and costs without even
asking about the story! But as mentioned before, family, friends and some
unknown readers have really encouraged me and kept me going on!
1 comments:
A lovely interview could relate to the feelings. Keep writing bro
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