HYDERABAD: Koel Purie Rinchet is many things, a TV producer, actor, presenter and, most recently, an author. Set in the capital of all things chic, Paris, Koel’s first novel titled 'Clearly Invisible in Paris' is a love letter to the friendships that have got so many people through their darkest days, a celebration of being an outsider and finding one’s own family. CE gets in touch with the debut author to know more about the book and more.
What was the inspiration behind penning the book?
There’s some energy I give out, and I’m not sure what it is, that makes people, sometimes random strangers, share their most personal stories with me. Often these stories are of silent unrecognised courage. Since moving to Paris, such stories have repeatedly come from the most disparate women, some who’ve become friends, some who I barely know. They have nothing in common — socially, professionally or racially, yet they were all united by their ambitious will to survive, and eventually thrive in this beautiful city that wouldn’t let them belong. Once this thread became apparent to me the story started writing itself.
Why did you choose Paris as the backdrop city?
Paris as a city offered polarity which I love as a writer. No other city, that I’ve come across, is so egalitarian and so divided at once. It’s full of contradictions — it’s the city of romance and yet so cold-hearted. Paris prides itself on being liberal and free but is equally insular and archaic in its values. My story is set in a typical Haussmann building which is a concentrated mini-slice of the splintered Parisian society.
The main characters are female, was it a conscious choice?
Through the ages, my girlfriends have always held pride of place. I have so much respect and empathy for the women in my life and the lives they’ve lived. So, having women protagonists was conscious. But I also have quite a few very strong male characters — flawed and beautiful, they may not take up a lot of space but their presence is felt across the story.
Did you face any challenges while writing?
Time was a big challenge. I had other creative commitments and projects, plus a young child. Often, after the customary morning procrastination ritual just as I’d get into the flow of writing, it would be time to pick up my daughter from school, or the dog would need walking or I’d have a Zoom call about a never-ending production contract. I’m lucky though, that the flow always came, the story kept giving, and even when I had no clear idea of where I was going, it kept unfolding as if I was experiencing it.
How much time and research did it take for the book?
I wrote the first draft in about 7-8 months from the first word to the end. But then it went through a slow but necessary process of several edits. Throughout my writing process as I fleshed out the story I fed it with intense research, imagination and a fair bit of immersive experience. My agent said I was “Method writing”. Sometimes I’d imagine a situation or person and then find all the research to back it up or I’d read some piece of news and then twist it and build on it the way it suited my story and characters.
You are an actress, producer and TV presenter, and now an author. Which role is closer to you?
I love acting, it quenches a deep need for attention in me but writing gives me power and autonomy that acting never can. Production mostly is a necessity to feed the other two.
What are your future plans?
My play Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy! which I wrote and performed earlier this year will tour in India and London in September and October. I’m also developing William Dalrymple’s Kohinoor for screen but that’s a slow and long process. Next, I’ll be seen in Zoya Akhtar’s Archies and Rajat Kapoor’s Everybody Loves Handa. I’m also toying with a fantastically chilling new idea for a mini-series that originates in the hardest parts of India and ends up in the aristocratic living rooms of Paris.