HYDERABAD: The song Ye chori badi drama queen hai,’ reminds us of many controversy rulers, but it’s only one lady, who can translate those words into her actions. Unafraid, feisty and bold, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi is all set to find her way into our hearts by authoring a new book that has bits and pieces of her life. Written in first person narrative, her book Drama Queen is mainly about the struggles of an artiste and a single mother as she tries to reclaim her place in the world after losing herself to marriage, motherhood and domesticity.
Can you share an insight about the book?
Drama Queen is a fictional memoir where fact and fiction merge. It was released in November 2013 and received a good response. There are so any people writing memoirs these days – I think I started the trend. Of course, mine is more like a novel since a large part of it is fictionalised - though everybody assumes its all true. It’s not.
What prompted you to write this book?
I have written three books already in the Swapnalok Society series based on the lives of people residing in a typical co-operative housing society in Mumbai. Drama Queen was originally a compilation of my blogs that a publisher had asked me to put together. But as I started writing the fresh material to link my earlier blogs I found a whole new voice, a whole new story emerging. I wrote the book in about six weeks – it was non-stop. Once I started I could not stop till the book was done.
Why a book and why not a movie script?
I haven’t written a movie script yet. A few years ago, I was asked to direct a movie and wrote a script for it, but sadly the movie never took off. Mainly because I found it too much hard work and I could not take so much time off at that point of my life to go make a movie. My priorities were different. And, so it died a natural death. I would like to revive it, if possible
How much of your personal life has seeped into the book?
Well, Drama Queen is a first person account i.e. I write it as myself, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi. There is a lot of myself in the book, but in a dramatised fictionalised reality kind of way. As I started to write the book, I had surprised myself on how I dramatised events that so far had seemed so straight forward and everyday. Its a lot of reality, but with much higher doses of imagination and humour
Did you have to do some research to go ahead with it?
It’s my own story - no research. My memory is intact.
What difficulties did you face while writing?
I did not have any difficulties while writing it at all. Like I said it all poured out in a flow over a period of few weeks. However, I had a fallout with my original publisher and then trying to find another publisher was hard. As most found it too irreverent and bold for the Indian market. It was a genre not yet attempted in India.
Do you think you are a feminist writer? If yes, how?
I’m not consciously feminist though some people do think I am. I believe the world is as much a woman’s as is a man’s. In fact, I dislike the hard-edged trying to be like a man attitude that so-called feminists adopt – men and women think differently. We should embrace that rather than fight it.
Is your book a search for true love?
In a bizarre over the top falling off your chair and tripping on a banana peel kind of bumbling way maybe its about finding true love but that’s not the crux of the book.
What was your discipline while writing? Are you a sporadic writer or are you among those who would sit and write chapters at one stretch?
I wait for inspiration and then I strike. I don’t approach it in a disciplined way– that’s not my style. Once I start I don’t stop till its complete - but to start takes me months of anxiety and low confidence. I always feel I don’t know how I am supposed to do this. Its the same for me when I act or sing till I don’t do it I’m a wreck. Once I start God takes over.
What was your favourite spot while writing?
My desk at home. I’m in the process of refurbishing my workspace now. Want to make it funkier – it all seems too serious right now.
Are you planning a comeback into cinema?
I am waiting for the right offers.
(Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation presented ‘Drama Queen,’ a biographical play written and performed by Suchitra Krishnamoorthi and directed by Inaayat Ali Sami at Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel on Friday.)