SATURDAY, JULY 26, 2014 Ex-investment banker turns to Bollywood script writing n Indian investment banker turned wildly successful novel- Chronicles of young India ist is taking a career turn in Bollywood, with a screenplay Bhagat’s debut “Five Point Someone”, a comedy-drama about Ahe says will tackle social issues in the same vein as the three friends in engineering college and the pressures they face books that made him a youth icon. Chetan Bhagat shot to fame inside and outside the conservative institution, provided the with his coming-of-age tale “Five Point Someone” in 2004 — writ- inspiration for “3 Idiots”, one of the biggest grossing Bollywood ten at night while he kept up his financial day job-which became films of all time. His new screenplay for action film “Kick” is about a huge commercial hit and spawned a raft of Indian campus nov- Devil, a man who lives for adrenaline rushes, played by Khan. The els. Another five books and 10 years later, 40-year-old Bhagat has film is a Hindi remake of a 2009 Telugu language production of dropped the banking career to become a full-time writer and the same name. speaker, known for his casual writing style enjoyed by millions of While it may sound like a commercial star-vehicle for the actor, Indians but snubbed by the literati. Four of Bhagat’s books have Bhagat insists the film, like his books, “tackles a contemporary already been adapted into movies, but “Kick”, an action-thriller social issue”. “It is about a man who lives for his kick. The movie is released yesterday and starring Bollywood headliner Salman not about kicking someone. To be geeky, it refers to kick as a Khan, is the first screenplay he has written that is not based on his noun, not the verb,” he said. He is aware, however, of the pres- previous work. sure on him in a film starring one of India’s most popular actors. He said he found the experience less “lonely” than novel-writ- “Salman’s fans are in the millions and their expectations have ing-although the collaborative method of film-making had its to be met. They see their hero as larger than life, and they will find challenges. “Writing a screenplay is a far more consultative the same in ‘Kick’,” he said. “To that extent, it is different from the process. When I write a book, I do the story the way I want it,” heroes in my books where I normally have a simple middle-class Bhagat told AFP in an interview. “In a book, one can digress a bit boy.”Another of Bhagat’s novels, “Revolution 2020”, is being whereas in a movie or screenplay, you have to be tight and not turned into a film a story set in heartland India about two boys wander too much from the plot.” with different aspirations but in love with the same girl, which Bhagat’s writing to date has tapped the aspirations and con- also looks at corruption in the education system. cerns of students, call-centre workers and other middle-class Bhagat says he is open to his next book, a rural-urban love youngsters, but purists have balked at his disregard for syntax story, also becoming a movie project. He remains a keen chroni- and form, unashamedly targeting Indians who do not consider cler of young Indians at a time when they have great expecta- English their first language. Despite being considered lowbrow by tions riding on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to In this photograph, Indian author Chetan Bhagat poses at his some-evident in a Twitter spat with Nobel-winning author power in May promising to revive the economy and create residence in Mumbai. — AFP Salman Rushdie over comments made by Bhagat at the 2012 jobs.”They want a government that cares, is responsive, will Jaipur Literature Festival-he has sold more than seven million even Bhagat seems unsure of the secret of his success, describing increase incomes and make people feel safe and free,” said copies of his books, which touch on contemporary issues from it as a “really hard question to answer”. Bhagat. “At some point (the government) will have to deliver or failures in the education system to inter-community marriage. “I think, based on what others have told me, it is a combina- risk creating dissonance.” — AFP An alumnus himself of the prestigious Indian Institute of tion of easy language, humor, relevance of stories to India, tight Technology and Management, Bhagat is considered a role model plots, relatable characters and a connect to the readers,” he said. by many ambitious youngsters, and his only non-fiction work so “I also feel I was lucky to be (in the) right place, right time when I far, in 2012, took on the subject of “What Young India Wants”. But started writing books.” Vogue Beauty Awards

Indian Bollywood actress Lisa Shilpa Shetty Kundra Aditi Rao Hydari Kajol Devgan Ileana D’Cruz — AFP photos Haydon attends the 2014 Vogue Beauty Awards in Mumbai.