The Teller of Stories
...Call Center took off, and Bhagat was now a star. That was when, he says, “the hate started.”
The literary establishment wasn’t impressed. Some reviews were savage. Many put his success down to smart marketing and pricing. Bhagat was bewildered. They were comparing his books to classics and finding them wanting. “Does it say on the cover: ‘this is a great book’? Do I say that on my Web site? Saying Chetan is no Tolstoy is like saying Infosys is no Google, so Infosys is a crap company. Why are they [the media] so high-handed? Newspapers that are sold for a two rupees, magazines that are sold at railway stations, read by ordinary people...” he trails off, takes a breath. “They’re not serving the country, they’re serving the country club.”
He agrees that marketing played a role. And “luck and randomness are a big part of it. I think I have a talent to entertain, believe in what I do and I do try my best to care for people. People have given me a chance. However, that still does not explain why I am read the most. That comes from luck, or if you want to be romantic about it, destiny. We also are in a winner-takes-all society, where the winner gets a lot more attention than the next guy, who may not be very different.”
I tell him of a friend who had seen a young man in a bus from Palampur to Delhi. He was reading a Bhagat, slowly, but pleased with himself — this was the first English book he’d read — and enjoying it thoroughly.
That’s where Bhagat has his fan base. People who are intimidated by the ‘literary,’ who love reality TV and the latest Bollywood offering, who dream and swear in languages other than English. His first three books (He titled the third The Three Mistakes of My Life in a dig at himself and the three books he’s written) have sold around 7 lakh copies each, Mehra tells us.
Rupa’s plans for the fourth, the recently released 2 States - The Story Of My Marriage, are even more ambitious: a million copies in 12 to 13 weeks; it has, thus far, sold somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 copies. ...Call Center became a movie — the unimpressive Hello — and Five Point... is hitting the screen as Three Idiots.
Bhagat today is no longer a banker. He’s a full-time writer and house husband. After moving to Mumbai as a director in Deutsche Bank, he eventually decided that he had to choose. Giving up the plush bank job wasn’t easy: “I was making a lot of money, in line for a BMW, that kind of thing.” But, he reasoned, the books were what were giving him real joy. And once he had made the call, he hasn’t looked back. Except, occasionally, when he misses the fat monthly cheque.
The criticism of his output evidently hurts, though he claims a thick skin. When 2 States was being edited, he says, he asked Rupa to put “the most anal liberal arts major to vet the copy.” He wanted to say to critics at large, “It’s not bad English! Just say you don’t like it! I got bigger pricks than you to work on it.”
He’s made a choice here as well. “People who love me will love me. Those who hate me, nothing I do will change their minds. Even an Obama has critics. Who the hell am I? I can please those who love me or try to convert those who hate me. But negativity brings my spirit down. So I chose to do the former.”
What’s next for him? He’s not sure. He wants to be an instrument of change. He wears his patriotism on his sleeve, to the point of jingoism, and has been observed to be quick to take offence when it is questioned. He’s not tied to the idea of being an author. He sees himself more as an entertainer. Perhaps TV, his own show; maybe more involvement with movies (he wants the reach that Bollywood can give him). He wants to make a difference.
Wouldn’t politics be a natural next step? He considers this. “It would be frustrating. Too much sucking up needed. I want action.” Pause. “But maybe ten years later.” Pause. “Maybe five.”
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Today, you are one of the most celebrated writers in India and easily a youth icon..all because you thought and you did.
Kudos !
