He is not yet 30. He started getting published before he was out of college. And his presence fills an auditorium with squealing fans. At a Durjoy Datta event, they don’t applaud. They scream. 

Saturday’s session with the young bestselling author of modern romance at the Kolkata Literature Festival 2017, held in association with The Telegraph, had even younger fans —in high school, college or just passed out — jostling for space in the SBI Auditorium. No wonder he would confess on stage to moderator Jash Sen: “Calcutta is where I get the best reception.”

It is most certain that the fan brigade knew all about him but they still hung on to every word he uttered as Jash took him through his journey right from his college days. “I started blogging in 2003-04. I had 50 to 100 readers.” But there was no drama in his leap from social media to the printed page and Datta sounded almost apologetic. “I really wish I had a struggle story to tell you.” Once he started making the rounds with his first manuscript, he got accepted within seven days. “The publisher said they would print only 2,000 copies. I said it was 1,999 copies more than I had expected.” The first book, Of Course I Love You...!, sold 50,000 copies in the first year itself, he later told t2.

He was “one of the first to be placed in my marketing college” and within three-four months at American Express, he was put on a fast-track programme to be groomed as a leader.  Yet the urge “to be around books” made him join his friends and float a publishing company. “We were lucky to have published seven-eight bestsellers in the first year itself.”

He works on two books at a time, he said. “They take a year. I wake up early to write my quota of words for the day. Once I hit that word count for the books, I am free to read or write scripts,” he said. Durjoy has written for TV serials like Sadda Haq: My Life My Choice and Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi.

Even with 13 successful titles under his belt, a question that he had asked buyers as a 21-year old debutant lingers in his mind. He still wonders why his books get sold. Asked about his latest title, The Girl of My Dreams, a psychological thriller, he named two authors in the genre he admires — Stephen King and Thomas Harris. “If you want a thriller, please pick up a Stephen King, not my book,” he said, with surprising candour which was evident again when he later named as his inspiration “millions of authors who write better than me”. 

Not that it made his fans change their minds. There was a long queue once the session got over to get signed copies. The volunteers at Bee Bookstore, next to the book-signing counter, which had stocked up on titles of the authors making KLF appearances, said they had sold more than 70 Durjoy Datta titles that afternoon.

The questions and comments tossed at him from the audience veered from the personal (“How do you feel about being a dad soon?”, “Why didn’t you bring your wife?”) to outright fawning (“You are so cute”, “Your books are the reason I retain my faith in love”). No wonder the queue outside for the book signing was serpentine. That was surely cause for more pleasure than impatience because t2 heard him telling organiser Esha Chatterjee before leaving that he “would love to come back to KLF next year”. 

Pictures: Arnab Mondal