CHENNAI: What happens when a best-selling author is stalked by a fan to three consecutive book launches? It becomes the perfect base for his next story, especially when the writer specialises in romantic thrillers! Almost a decade since he released his first novel A Thing Beyond Forever, Novoneel Chakraborty released his latest — Black Suits You, in the city this weekend. This author-cum-script writer talks to us about his latest psycho-sexual thriller, inspiration, fan base and more.
Almost a decade since he released his first novel A Thing Beyond Forever, Novoneel Chakraborty released his latest — Black Suits You, in the city this weekend. This author-cum-script writer talks to us about his latest psycho sexual thriller, inspiration, fan base and more.
Before we could get details about the dark and twisted story he has penned, Novoneel takes us back to his humble beginnings in 2008 when he laid his hands on the first copies of his first book.
“I still remember…I had placed them on the bed and slept with them. From the time I got the story idea, I couldn’t take it out of my system. And the only way it decided to leave me was when I sat down and wrote it as a story,” he narrates.
It took him close to a year to finish writing it and eight more months to get it published. “I remember I was penning the climax which was pretty emotional and I didn’t know I too had tears in my eyes. My mother came in the room and asked, ‘Tell me who the girl is who broke your heart?’ And I had to make her understand that it was a character!”
Back to present day — Black Suits You is a thriller which talks about infidelity in today’s times and the things youngsters do for fame. Novoneel shares that one of his inspirations was a girl who followed him to three book launches. “I also wanted to write about a girl who gets ditched but doesn’t take it lying down,” he says pointing to the ‘mysterious girl’ in the book.
Not only has he been followed subtly by fans, but has also been avidly stalked! “I have been cyber stalked many times but it scared me once, as the person not only knew my personal details but also was adding my school and college friends on Facebook using a fake profile. I somehow managed to realise it on time and block the profile. I have been a little alert since then,” he shares.
Though stalking is bound to happen with a huge fan base, the author opines that readers keep him going.
“Since I write about strong, bold female characters I think I have more number of women fans. Sometimes I’m surprised by the age range of my readers. I get messages from teenagers as well as the 45-plus. Makes me feel happy and lucky for being connected to such a wide spectrum of people through my stories,” he smiles.
Talking about the characters for his story, he explains, “Though the process of choosing characters is pretty random, two things always excite me: how an ordinary character can react to an extraordinary situation in life, and the universality in the character which a lot of people relate to. I try to think from the perspective of the character rather than the reader.” Adapting the literary device of an ‘unreliable narrator’ to tell the story, in his current book, he claims that it hasn’t been used much in contemporary fiction in India.
“Getting a book out might be easy but, creating a loyal readership never is! To make thousands of people your loyal reader is something more difficult these days because so much of your work is replicated,” avers the writer who chooses being an author than a script writer.
“I’ll tell you why…other modes of storytelling makes you compromise with lot of elements!”
He is now working on a dark romance thriller about an issue that plagues a lot of Indian families but is seldom talked about. He also hopes to write some fiction for the children in the future.
Novoneel Chakraborty’s ‘Black Suits You’ is available on Amazon