Your book is about a woman and her struggles and sacrifices in a patriarchal society. Do you think this holds true in today’s world too?
It holds true in any world. Whatever I write, I try to bring contemporary issues into my work. I might set my books in Lanka, Hastinaputra, Kishkinda or Mahishmathi, but the issues I deal with are the issues of today’s India.
Here we have a woman competing in a man-driven world to avenge her father. She is also burning with ambition. Don’t we as a society always label such women evil? Was it difficult to make her your heroine?
In fact, when filmmaker SS Rajamouli asked me to write the prequel, he had given me a choice to choose the characters and I knew in my mind that it should be Sivagami. Choosing Sivagami gave me a lot of dramatic conflict, and the story wrote by itself. The setting is in Medieval India, and the hero—Sivagami—must compete against the most ruthless of all men. It becomes doubly difficult for a woman to rise, as the men will always use morality, sexuality, arrogance, ambition and many such things against a woman to keep her in her ‘place’. The society would tolerate and even admire such qualities in men but would hold the women to a different standard. Making Sivagami the hero gave me the leverage to highlight such fault lines of a patriarchal society.
Why attempt a reverse chronology?
The idea was to create a prequel and expand the story world of the film. Since this is a novel, and a web series, choosing Bahubali as the hero didn’t offer much challenge. When compared to a film, books and web series offer a wider canvas. The book series demands grey characters and nuanced plotting. Sivagami and Kattappa are established characters in the minds of all Bahubali fans. So, it was a straightforward decision to go back in time and write the story from Sivagami’s and Kattappa’s childhood.
Bahubali continues to be one of the most loved and enduring stories for millions across the globe going beyond books into films, into animation and gaming. Did you expect such an overwhelming response?
Bahubali is such a big cult now because of the vision of the filmmaker and the producers. I am happy that I was a part of it. A phenomenon like Bahubali happens only once in a lifetime.
Chaturanga also weaves a beautiful story of romance. Was that a conscious decision to lend some softer emotions?
Since the hero of the book is a woman, a romance offers a grand conflict point. The choice of her ambition versus her romance is an interesting plot point. It not only renders softer emotions, but it also helps me and the reader dwell deeper into the mind of Sivagami.
Did you model Sivagami on anyone you know?
I based Sivagami on many historical characters right from ancient times to the modern era. A woman in the game of political chaturanga must be both firebrand and compassionate at the same time. In history, there are many such women—from Indira Gandhi to J Jayalalithaa, from Razia
Sultan to Rani Lakshmi Bai, there have been many women who have aced the game.
You discuss quite a few socio-political issues here.
All my books discuss socio-political issues. I want to nudge a reader to think about the society around us. Literature must show the mirror to society. It must reflect both beauty and flaws.
Your writing is always focused on nuanced geographically sensitive narratives.
I ask a lot of questions to myself before I sit to write a story about the place and its people. I even create a history for each geography in my works and this constructed history often stretches back to thousands of years. I might not use even 10 percent of the story world, but I need to know the place well. I had created almost 3,000 years of history for Mahishmathi in my notes.
What should we look forward to in the final part?
The last part hopefully will arrive by this year’s end. I have completed 90 percent of it. It will see the culmination of Sivagami’s story where she becomes the Queen of Mahishmathi, but in this journey, the price she has to pay for her success will make it bittersweet.
QUICK TAKES
A book you wish you would have written.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Authors you admire.
Veda Vyasa and Leo Tolstoy.
A lockdown routine you have picked up.
I walk a lot, almost 15 km a day, drenched in thoughts.
A favourite reading nook.
While walking. I have fallen in love with audio stories.
E-book or print?
Print, always.