She walked into The Chambers in a summery yellow tunic and immediately endeared herself to the audience, perching cross-legged on one of the ornate chairs, all set to talk about family, romance, Brendon McCullum’s delish derriere and Sourav Ganguly’s disastrous acting at An Author’s Afternoon, presented by Shree Cement and Taj Bengal, held in association with t2, Prabha Khaitan Foundation and literary agency Siyahi. 

In conversation with Debnita Chakravarti, a professor of English at Shri Shikshayatan College, ad woman and bestselling writer Anuja Chauhan left everyone in splits as much with her candid chatter as with her theatrical voice modulation!

Debnita Chakravarti: Your fourth novel, The House that BJ Built, just came out. What’s the feedback?

Anuja Chauhan: It’s been good. But first, hello, it’s lovely to be here. Calcutta is not really on my circuit, so I get really excited every time I am invited here. Yes, the book is doing good. It came out on May 25. It’s been reviewed quite kindly in newspapers and, more excitingly, on blogs where regular young readers write. 

I am yet to read even a mildly negative review of your books. Have you ever had one?

No. Usually horrible reviews are for my advertising work (laughs). So I’m very toughened because there you get such terrible feedback. But thankfully in writing, it doesn’t seem to happen. Of course there is some criticism, but it’s constructive; stuff you can take forward.

This one is a sequel to Those Pricey Thakur Girls... did you always plan it in two parts?

What happened was, after I finished Battle For Bittora I went to a literary soiree and I met this lady... who pinned me to a corner and said (imitates), ‘Are you becoming the Madhur Bhandarkar of literature? You’ve written one book about cricket [The Zoya Factor] and one book about politics [Battle For Bittora], so what are you doing?’ 

I introspected and started thinking about topics that didn’t have the girl’s job as the backdrop. I wanted to write about a family property dispute because one was happening in my family, and it happens in everyone’s family....

Also, I wanted to write about sisters because I am the youngest of four sisters and my mom is the youngest of five sisters, so I have a lot of that going on.... 

I sat down to write a saga called The House That BJ Built. I hit 800 pages and it was nowhere near closure, so I decided to cut it up. I named the first one Those Pricey Thakur Girls and it sets up the girls in the 1980s. And the second is about the property dispute.  

But it must’ve been difficult living up — or writing up — to the expectations because the previous book was your highest grosser. Did you feel the pressure? 

Ya! You know, there were so many people in Those Pricey Thakur Girls and I thought I would be brave, and try and be literary and stuff. Thakur Girls is written in a very sympathetic manner about the sisters. The book talks about these five girls and the girls are nice and you don’t question them and you like them. But in The House That BJ Built, it’s written from the niece Bonu’s point of view, and she doesn’t like her aunts. I wanted to challenge myself but I found it very difficult to look at it from Bonu’s point of view because I was also very fond of the sisters. 

So now suddenly Bonu is thinking, ‘Oh Dabbu Mausi is such a cow,’ and I’m like, but I like Dabbu Mausi! So that was quite a struggle. Chachaji’s son, Gulgul, is a sweet boy who everyone likes but now Gulgul Mama has turned into this evil guy.... My brain took a while to wrap around the way everything had changed. 

So this is the last of the Thakurs?

I’m quite sick of the Thakurs! Maybe I will do a prequel and go back to the ’50s. The third book might be about Dylan’s father, who had eloped. But no, as of now I know what I am writing next and it has nothing to do with the Thakurs of Hailey Road!

‘The Madhur Bhandarkar of literature’ epithet is funny because I thought people referred to you as ‘Jane Austen of Delhi’…

That I don’t find as troublesome. And that was bound to come up. Five sisters, family dispute, you know yeh toh phir wahin jayega.

Do you think of Austen as a prominent influence on your work?

No. I know it’s sacrilegious, but I’m not such an Austen fan. Even if I am an Austen fan, I’m not such a Pride and Prejudice fan because frankly, I think Lydia got such a raw deal. Everyone was so mean about her. I really think of Elizabeth and Jane as self-righteous, goody two shoes who think, ‘Arrey, we are so classy and our sisters are like….’ Uff! They don’t like their own mother, they don’t like their own sister, they are just sitting around thinking, ‘We are so cool and rich people want to marry us.’ I have issues, especially with that book, because I don’t like the relationship between the sisters. Also, when I was young everyone kept calling me the Lydia of the family, so anyway I am sympathetic. She should’ve got Mr Darcy! 

So, who is your big influence?

I have lots. One has a shelf in the bathroom, which is books one really likes... so I have A Suitable Boy, Catch 22, which is my all-time favourite, and lots of others that change now and then. In the romances I love Georgette Heyer and Eva Ibbotson. 

In Heyer’s books, the secondary characters are so important. There will always be some highway and there’s an inn and everyone is living in that inn and there’s an innkeeper and he has a really strange daughter and everyone is really funny and eccentric. She really sweats the minor characters, which is something I love. 

Eva Ibbotson is not so well-known but she does brilliant romances about characters who are immigrants from places like Russia and Vienna. 

I also really like Meg Cabot, who writes The Princess Diaries series. There’s a new one coming, did you girls know? It’s called The Royal Wedding and it’s Princess Diaries 11 where Mia and Michael are getting married. 

You actively discourage categorisation, like chick lit, which is perfectly fine. But who would you like to be shelved with in a bookstore or a library?

I don’t know, I guess a writer whose work I like. I love Agatha Christie. I’ve recently found an Agatha Christie I hadn’t read and I was so excited, because I thought I’d read them all! I love her and a lot of popular writers as well. As of now on Amazon for The House That BJ Built, it says ‘Very often bought with Flood of Fire (by Amitav Ghosh) and Scion of Ikshvaku (by Amish)’. So I am happy.

You are pitch-perfect in dialogue. How do you do it? Do you say it out loud while writing?

I eavesdrop shamelessly! I just love listening to people talk. I tune in and stop listening to others and I keep going closer and closer. And the way people speak English is brilliant everywhere. 

I listen to people talk and I chat with people on the plane. Like I was coming in the flight and — I won’t name the person because you might know him — but I asked somebody if I could borrow the newspaper. He nodded and said, ‘That’s me! The story is about me! Mera company ka hai, main CEO hoon aur yeh mera quote hai.’ 

It was a very big company, guys! And I’m thinking, ‘Dude, why are you travelling economy with me?’ Anyway he was this really big shot and he was so excited about his company and the story and the war he was winning. Amazing man! It’s just so nice to chat with them. 

Before you quit your day job, when did you write? Especially with The Zoya Factor, where you were heading massive ad campaigns (at JWT), you had three children at home, when did you write? 

I shamelessly wrote in the office (everyone laughs out loud). At that point of time, I had done advertising for 14 years, and was so sick of it... I couldn’t write anything and I thought ab yeh pakar lengey, they’ll know that I have run out of ideas. I was in blind panic. So I declared, ‘I am taking a sabbatical!’ 

Initially they said, ‘Okay, don’t quit, take three months off, write a book if you want to, and come back.’ Of course, at that point, I didn’t know that you can’t write a book in three months! But I went off and must’ve written about 40,000 words and came back. And then I was writing in the office, in airport lounges and hotels. It was very exciting because I was very frustrated at that point of time, so it was a huge escape thing. People told me, ‘You have such a glow on your cheeks… are you having an affair? You look so excited, what’s going on?’ 

Even Battle For Bittora I wrote while working full-time but I quit before it came out, because I knew if it didn’t do well I would never have the guts to quit. And even then people were like, ‘Tumne naukri chhor di?’ I said, ‘Haan, midlife crisis.’ They said, ‘Midlife crisis tha toh affair-shaffair kar letey na, naukri kyon chhor di?’ In all seriousness! And they were all well-wishers! (Everyone laughs)

People have one book in them, which is usually autobiographical. But you have managed to portion and channelise different aspects of your life into different books. Like Battle For Bittora revolved around your mother-in-law’s (senior Congress leader  Margaret Alva) election campaign. How do you do that?

I really like telling stories. When I was in a boarding school in Meerut, they were always having communal riots and then curfews and nobody could go anywhere. There was no TV, so my girlfriends and I used to sit together and I used to make up stories.... I was like a little TV show. If my friend was a basketball player, I used to make up a story about how she went to this tournament in Dehradun and how the bus broke down and this boys’ school bus came and it was full of jocks… customised romances. 

I have fallen asleep at night weaving a very complicated plot for a romance between my elder sister, who was very bookish, with Sanjay Dutt, who had just debuted with Rocky, and my younger sister, who was very bubbly and hot, with Kumar Gaurav. I was 10 years old. I wrote it very believably, plausibly and with all the details of where they could’ve met and how the whole thing went. I know it’s very juvenile but I like writing romances. 

And usually I don’t like writing a book till I have something to say. I know there is great literature that has no point at all, but for me that is important. In The Zoya Factor, I am saying don’t be swept off your feet by public adulation and don’t be superstitious. With Bittora, I am saying that it’s okay to love your country and be idealistic about politics. In Thakur Girls, I’m saying that don’t sit in a walled garden, be aware of what’s happening around you. And in this book, it’s about the house that BJ built, which is not about the bricks and mortar but the relationships as well. 

Talking about live TV shows, Thakur Girls is now a TV show (Dilli Wali Thakur Gurls on &TV). Do you like it? 

I don’t know if I like it or dislike it but it has nothing to do with the book. Apparently it’s doing well and the TRPs are growing… but who’s that very fair man and why is he her (Debjani’s) boss? 

But I have not yet reached a point where I can’t not sell movie and TV rights and hope to make a living just off my books. Yes, if people buy enough books then I don’t need to sell movie rights! Like Battle For Bittora has Fawad Khan playing Zain and Sonam Kapoor is Jinni. And the rights of The Zoya Factor are with (producer) Puja Shetty Deora. 

Maina Bhagat (of Oxford Bookstore): How has your experience in advertising influenced your writing?

Anuja: The first boss I ever had in advertising, he said the three Rs of advertising are rapidity, resilience and repertoire, which is actually quite true. I don’t know how much of it I have actually imbibed but what they try and teach you is not to bore people. Nowadays I can skip ads in five seconds on YouTube. On a deeper level, you generally try and have insights that connect with people. 

 

 

 

Arindam Sil (actor-filmmaker): You seem to be quite an adda person. Given an opportunity to ‘maaro adda’ with a writer of your choice, who would you pick? 

Anuja: I am a huge Javed Akhtar fan. He is amazing. Actually we hung out at the London Book Fair, where he was always getting mobbed, so he caught hold of me and said, ‘Tum mere saath raho, mereko bahut darr lag raha hai, these people are going to mob me!’ 

Few things he said to me I will always remember. He said, ‘Dekhiye, in order to be interesting, you must be interested. I am interested in the young people of today.’ 

It was so sweet, he had just written the lyrics for Rock On!! and he was very pumped about the fact that it was so young. He told me, ‘Maine jaake apni beti se poochha, mujhe kuch slang batao. Drugs ko kya kehte hain?’ So the line, Mary Jane ka ek packet... apparently ‘Mary Jane’ is a slang for marijuana and people came and told him, ‘Sir aapko yeh today’s slang kaise pata?’ (Laughs)

I have written a screenplay and sat with him and he was like, ‘This is rubbish, throw it away. You should come back to the main theme every time. Jab madaari (street performer) aata hai, in the middle he will put a tokri and inside the tokri there is a snake and the monkeys will keep dancing and every now and then he will remind you, tokri ke andar saanp hai. The audience is hanging around because they want to see the snake. What is the saanp in your tokri? What is the main theme of the screenplay? You have to keep reminding people of it.’ This is such a brilliant lesson and so simply said. 

 

Sundeep Bhutoria (of Prabha Khaitan Foundation): Could you share with us your experience of working with Kolkata Knight Riders?

Anuja: That’s actually the first time I came to Calcutta, Nokia sponsored it. I did three editions of the KKR campaign. It was fun. There was Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum, who was really hot, especially when looked at from the back. So we spent most of the shoot sitting behind him. When he turned around and asked, ‘What are you looking at?’ We were like, ‘Oh, your tattoos, we are looking at your tattoos.’ 

Sourav Ganguly is, of course, the most terrible actor I have ever worked with (laughs)! He is horrible and I struggled for so many years! And every time I am like, ‘Sourav? Usse dialogue kaun bulwayega?!’ Then there was Ishant Sharma, who told me very proudly, ‘Maine cricket toh Class XI mein hi seekh liya, usse pehle gharwaale khelne nahin dete thhe. Kehte thhe marks achhe lao.’ So I said, ‘You got good marks?’ Proudly he said, ‘Yes, 63 per cent!’

The whole team... Shah Rukh (Khan), Juhi Chawla and Bobby (Juhi’s brother who passed away last year)…. these were the same Pepsi Kurkure people, so it was quite lovely.

 

Jyotee Khaitan (designer): You have worked with brands like Pepsi and Kurkure. There is this huge debate going on where celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit are being asked not to endorse brands like Maggi or a cola. What do you think?

Anuja: Today this seems to be the hot topic. I don’t know what the legalities are but I think morally, you should be endorsing something only if you are comfortable in your conscience. Nobody has put a gun to your head saying

Maggi becho! Amitabh Bachchan has three grandchildren, woh khaate hain Maggi? Agar khaate hain then endorse it. That is my logic. Beyond that you cannot expect him to go over it with a magnifying glass. Kangana (Ranaut) recently said she wouldn’t do a fairness cream ad because she was uncomfortable. Good for her. And then when she does endorse something, I’ll trust her more. I will be like, this girl is careful about what she endorses. 

They are rich enough, they don’t need the money. So, I think they should absolutely be held responsible. If someone is buying a baniyan because Salman Khan wears it then Salman should be wearing it. 

 

Rucheka Jain (Class XI, La Martiniere for Girls): While I was reading Thakur Girls, Dylan Singh Shekhawat did come across like Mr Darcy of Pride and Prejudice. Did you have Mr Darcy in mind while you were creating Dylan’s character?

Anuja: No, I actually have a world-famous favourite person who is the hero in The Princes Diaries. His name is Michael Moscovitz. I just love Michael. He is really young. In the last book he is 21 and she is 18. That’s a character I like and also Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. 

Mr Darcy is nice but he is a little boring, he is not particularly witty. Mr Darcy is not going to corner anyone against his staircase and make a move... I don’t think so. But what is there in Those Pricey Thakur Girls, is this whole thing of the girl and boy meeting and he proposes… she turns him down… he writes her a letter and then she takes him back. That much of the format is like Pride & Prejudice. But what I did want Debjani to do was save Dylan, which I feel is something not there even in the structure of a novel like Pride and Prejudice. I think we all have influences in our head and you whirl them in a mixie and they come out a little different.