Recently, bestselling writer Amish announced a new book... and it was not the one his readers were expecting! The writer of Indian mythological fiction series like the Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra Series has now forayed into historical fiction with Suheldev and the Battle of Bahraich (Westland Books, Rs 399). This is the first title in Amish’s Indic Chronicles, expected to hit bookstores on July 23. The cover of Suheldev was launched by Varun Dhawan on June 12. t2 dialled Amish for the deets of the new book, and a few laughs!

Who is Suheldev? Suhel Seth ka bada bhai toh nahin hai?!

(Laughs for a good 10 seconds) Funny question.... No, no... (laughs some more). No, no, no, of course not! The best way to describe this is to use the markers that most of us Indians are aware of. The way history has been taught to us is that Mahmud of Ghazni first came to India around 1015-1016 AD, he destroyed the Somnathji Temple around 1025, and then we are taught that almost seamlessly Muhammad Ghori came and then the so-called Islamic rule began. I don’t like the term ‘Islamic rule’, it should actually be called Turkish colonial rule. We don’t call the British colonial rule ‘Christian rule’, do we?

Anyway, we are taught that Mahmud Ghazni came and then Muhammad Ghori came. But Ghori came in 1192. So 1025 to 1192 is a very, very long time, right? Mahmud Ghazni and Muhammad Ghori were both Turks from Central Asia. So how come we had these 150 years of peace? This was the time the Turks were going all over the world invading other cultures — China, the Arab world, Europe... everywhere.

The answer lies in this battle called the Battle of Bahraich. Mahmud Ghazni had died by then, but his army had come under the leadership of Ghazni’s nephew. Suheldev was a prince of a small principality in north India and he raised an army to fight the Ghazni army. And he defeated them so devastatingly that he didn’t dare to come back for 150 years! It’s a very, very inspiring story, but it’s been airbrushed out of our history. And Suheldev was a backward caste hero. In my story, Raja Suheldev is an inspiring, charismatic leader who raised an army of Indian upper caste Hindus, Indian Muslims, Indian Buddhists and people from his own community to fight these foreign Turk invaders and defeated them and brought about 150 years of peace for India. Of course, any victory has a cost and he paid a high cost.   

You wrote a book in between the Ram Chandra Series, aren’t you scared of your fans?!

I have been apologising to many of my friends and readers (chuckles). I want to clarify that Raavan (Raavan: Orphan of Aryavarta, the third book in the Ram Chandra Series) is not delayed. The schedule was for Raavan to come out end of this year or early next year, and it is on schedule. More than half of it is written already, I am continuing to write it. But yeah, I’ve been clarifying on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to some angry readers who are asking ‘Where is Raavan?’ that this book has not delayed Raavan. This is like an additional bonus book.

Suheldev is a part of Indic Chronicles. Tell us more about this series...

Indic Chronicles is a series that will come out in addition to the core books that I write. Once things are in place, you guys will get a book from me every six months. What was the need for the Indic Chronicles? One, I have more stories than I have the capacity to write. Lord Shiva is very kind with his blessings to me. But it takes me a year-and-a-half to two years, per book. At the pace that I am writing, I’ll probably die before I finish writing all my story ideas.

What I have started is a concept called a Writers Centre. It is there internationally, it hasn’t been tried in India till now. What happens here is the main writer can hire a few writers. I tell them the entire story and about the research, the reading etc. that they have to do. They write the first skeletal draft and then I work on that. As far as the reader is concerned, it is my book. In this, for example, I’ve been assisted by Vikas Singh.

How did you meet Vikas and decide he would be the one to work on this book?

My publishers helped me find him. Vikas is a fantastic guy, a journalist and himself a published writer. So this is the model that I’ve started. Ideas in the Indic Chronicles will be written through the Writers Centre. Through this series I am essentially trying to cover ignored heroes and heroines of India. Heroes that we should know but don’t, because of the way that history is taught to us. But you’ll read it as stories, it’s not a non-fiction history book.

Is it narrative non-fiction?

No, it’s fiction. It’s historical fiction. The Battle of Bahraich was a true event, Suheldev did exist, but the book itself is fiction. Like the movie Braveheart. It’s a fiction movie that is based on true events. William Wallace actually existed, he was one of the key figures in the Scottish rebellion against the English king. But obviously they fictionalised the story to make it more engaging for the audience. You’ll read Suheldev as a story, like any of my other books.

Can an aspiring writer become a part of your Writers Centre?

I’d love to have any writer who is passionate about India and passionate about my books. My publishers are trying to set up a kind of system for this. Right now, I’m only working with some published authors who my publishers have found. In due course we could certainly open this up.... We will set up a system for this, to evaluate and shortlist, which the publisher will do, and then I’ll look at the shortlist. We want people who are good storytellers, who are passionate about India and who feel passionately about my books.

When we met last, you mentioned that your vision is to create an Indian story universe with multiple stories, something like a Marvel Universe...

See, all the Indic Chronicles books are linked to my Vedic Series books as well, which is all my Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra Series books. I am yet to build a ‘universe’, I’m not sure it’ll be right for me to compare it to Marvel or anything, but yeah, the Marvel Universe can be used as a kind of reference point to explain what I’m trying to do. The idea is to build an interconnected universe of stories, where every story is linked to one another and they all build each other.   

Do you see the Indic Chronicles being turned into films, or TV series?

I certainly hope so, because as compared to Shiva Trilogy or Ram Chandra Series, which by their nature, are much bigger projects, the Indic Chronicles will have historicals at a smaller scale. So they will be easier to make. We’ll not need the kind of budgets we’ll need for a Shiva Trilogy or Ram Chandra Series, we will not need as much city building as we will need for creating a Meluha, let’s say. Because if a historical is set in the last 1,300 years especially, you can find locations now only, you don’t need to build everything from scratch.

Varun Dhawan released the cover of Suheldev. How did that linkage happen?

You know, anyone I invite for any event of mine... Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Kajol, Karan Johar or Varun or Vivek Oberoi... these are people who have read my books and liked them and so therefore one has got in touch with them. Varun has read the Shiva Trilogy and liked them, so.... He said he is very inspired by the story of Suheldev. 
He had an important insight, that the Scheduled Castes and Tribes of India make up around 20-25 per cent of our population but if you look at our popular culture, our movies, our popular books, they are actually missing. Even if they are there, they’re not there as heroes, they are there as an add-on. That’s not right. Either they are ignored, by both the liberals and the conservatives, or they are brought in as people who need to be ‘saved’ by the elite. 
But India was moulded in large ways by backward classes as well. And we’ve had heroes like Suheldev who’ve impacted India for a thousand years. Where are these stories in our history books, in our popular culture? Varun said this was really needed and this was one of the reasons why he wanted to come for the cover launch.

As a Marvel fan, I’m sure you’ve watched Avengers: Infinity War?

Of course! I thought it was a very good movie. Very interesting, the characterisations, the story and all were fantastic! But I thought they were discussing something deeper as well. I really liked it, and so did my son (Neel, 9).

And Iron Man is still your favourite Avenger?

Oh ya, ya, ya. He’s the star!

Last time you and Neel were watching Full House on Netflix. And now?

I watched Altered Carbon. I liked it. And I’ve seen Dark as well. It’s a German series, quite good.

Will you be watching the FIFA World Cup?

No, not really. I like playing football, but not watching football. I like playing football, cricket, badminton, but the only sport I like watching is cricket.

Good, then the World Cup won’t distract you while you finish writing Raavan!

(Laughs) Yes, yes, that’s true... especially since I’ve been apologising ever since this book was announced (laughs)!