A Chetan Bhagat selfie from his Facebook page

Chetan Bhagat’s sixth novel has the makings of a bestseller even before Chapter 1. The book is dedicated to “the non-English types”. And that in India means more than half a billion people! But we’ll crunch numbers later, let’s talk about the story first.

Half Girlfriend (Rupa Publications, Rs 176) is a love story, between a boy from rural Bihar and a rich girl from south Delhi. Keeping with his tradition of naming the central character after Lord Krishna, Bhagat calls this one Madhav Jha, a tall, lanky lad with state-level basketball skills but no English.

Madhav’s initial struggle and shame at not being able to speak English at St. Stephen’s College is captured well, immediately endearing him to readers. The “non-English types” see themselves in Madhav, the connoisseurs of the Queen’s craft see their guilt in his discomfiture.

But even before he secures a sports quota entry into this elite college, Madhav’s fate is sealed. He spots Riya Somani at basketball try-outs and falls in love — immediately, goofily and hopelessly. It’s a love that’ll take him to heady highs and terrible lows. The two become “basketball friends”. Well, at least that’s how Riya sees it. All Madhav wants is to kiss her, hold her and be her boyfriend. Aroused, frustrated and swayed by bad advice from friends to “make Bihar count”, Madhav makes his move and when she declines, he says something heartbreaking: “Deti hai to de, varna kat le.” She leaves.

We open our chat with Chetan Bhagat on this note, which makes him rather unhappy.

“This time the book is getting a lot of appreciation and it’s very popular and it’s very hard to point flaws with the book. It’s set in rural India, it’s got a message and everything... they need something to pick on, so they have picked this line,” he says about the bad press that one line has garnered. A fellow writer has even tweeted with the hashtag #VarnaKatLe.

He feels people who haven’t even read the book are taking screen shots of that line and posting it on social media. “It’s something said by a fictional character. That one line makes the girl leave him, he regrets it, it’s a whole chain of events,” he continues.

“Am I not allowed to write a book the way I want? Can a character be angry? Can a character be crass? Or am I not allowed to do that anymore?”

Bhagat believes that the language matters here. “If I wrote ‘I think you should have sex with me or you should leave the room’, then it would be fine.”

That in essence is the crux of Half Girlfriend too. “There’s a politics around the language [English]. There are certain segments that want to control this language. They don’t want to give it to everyone and they are going to judge anybody who doesn’t know it. That’s what I am fighting. I want everybody to have access to English. It’s just a language,” he says when asked why his English novel is dedicated to the “non-English types”.

“There are millions in the country who don’t speak English well and they are denied jobs. Many girls will not date a guy who doesn’t speak English properly… and it’s not even our own language! It’s something they feel bad about, they may not express it but there’s a lot of feeling behind this discrimination. And that is where this book was born,” he says, adding, “My job is to show a mirror to society. If that mirror is showing something you don’t like, please look at yourself, not at the writer.”

In the book, when Madhav has to learn English quickly, to give an important speech, Riya suggests he read Chetan Bhagat’s books. Some may call this canny self-promotion, or it could simply be the ground reality. Many of his readers have written on Bhagat’s Facebook page that his are the only English books they read.

“This book was a conscious attempt. I am trying to reach more people. Someone once asked me, ‘People call you an Indian writer but have you touched rural India? Is your work relevant there?’ It really got me thinking… I thought, I don’t want to be this ‘metro’ writer. Then I moved to small town [with his 2011 book Revolution 2020]. And this time, rural India.

“I was very scared to do a rural book because I thought the existing reader base might feel, ‘Arrey, what is this village story? How do we relate to it?’ But these issues are very real. I want to make sure that I reach places where no English author has ever reached.”

No wonder, the print run for Half Girlfriend is 20 lakh copies. To put things in perspective, a fiction title selling 10,000 copies is called a bestseller. For Bhagat, the pre-orders alone make his book a runaway bestseller, many times over.

Why then the full page newspaper ads? Or marketing gimmicks like turning delivery boy for Flipkart on launch day?

“I don’t need to,” he laughs and agrees. “In fact, I didn’t do too much [promotions]. Flipkart decided to give the ads. The promotions have all moved online. The idea was to do something fun for online. I thought being a delivery boy would kinda go with this… you know, a lot of Flipkart delivery boys buy my books. They’ve told me this. It was one of the best compliments. They said, ‘We receive books and distribute books all day but when your book comes out, even we buy it.’”

His books might sell in lakhs but Bhagat worries that people aren’t reading enough in India. “People are reading less. WhatsApp is a distraction. And Candy Crush. It’s very difficult to get a share of the attention and that’s where I see competition. Not authors, not elites… it’s irrelevant to me. It’s fun on Twitter and makes for good interview questions but apart from that it’s inconsequential,” he says of his competition. “I’m not being immodest, it’s just the way it is….”

So, what according to him, can boost reading?

“It starts in your childhood. Parents have to do that. People like me, we have to make books cool. So a big announcement of Half Girlfriend… it all adds to making books more cool, right? You need to do that a li’ bit.”

Does he think books have lost their cool quotient to apps and games? “Of course they have, among the general population. There’s a small population that still likes books but it’s very small compared to the size of our country.”

What did he read in his childhood? “Enid Blyton... and things like that. And then you grow up and read Ayn Rand and the classics in school. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

For his 10-year-old twin boys, Ishaan and Shyam, he picks up Harry Potter and Roald Dahl. “But we also have our battle to fight — the screen! Kids do what parents do and I think we have to first tell society why reading is important. It’s the only thing that builds imagination. I think a lot of middle-class parents miss that. Once you don’t have the reading habit, you won’t have it. Or it’s very difficult to have it. That is why I feel the writing community should stop trying to pull each other down. Because we’re such a tiny segment, you know. We cannot do infighting, saying I’m better than you…”

Bhagat encourages his readers to pick up more books. “Go to the bookstore, see the bestseller list, if you like Indian writers, see the Indian writing section, always be reading a book. You don’t have to read only Chetan Bhagat books, you shouldn’t. You should read others too… and of course, when my book comes out, please read it. But in between, keep the reading habit.”

When talking to Chetan Bhagat, one has to ask about Bollywood. All his books have been turned into Hindi films, the last biggie being 2 States, starring Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. And he co-wrote the screenplay for Salman Khan’s Id blockbuster, Kick. The movie rights for Revolution 2020 have been snapped up by UTV. Half Girlfriend did even better. It was picked up by Ekta Kapoor even before the book was out. The film will be directed by Mohit Suri of Aashiqui 2 and Ek Villain fame. “They not only took the book, they announced the film even before the book came out! They believed in the manuscript so much,” beams Bhagat.

But he is exhausted now, he says. It’s been a hectic year for him, what with the promotions for 2 States and Kick and then writing and releasing Half Girlfriend. “Just this year I have done three interviews with you,” he laughs. “I’m almost like a regular feature in your paper now!”

It’s been a great run he says, but now “it’s a case of too much. I am blanked out. I want a creative break.”

For Half Girlfriend, the movie, we want Ranveer Singh as Madhav, the crown prince of Dumraon. This madcap actor has the right mix of rustic cool and urban shiz to pull off Madhav’s Bihari boy avatar as well as his New York stint. And who better as his “half girlfriend” in reel life than his “rumoured girlfriend” in real life! Sporty stunner Deepika Padukone seems perfect for Riya, the south Delhi girl who looks like a million bucks, plays basketball and is a bit of bohemian at heart