NEW DELHI: There’s more than just writing that goes into making any book a bestseller, believes popular comedian and author Sorabh Pant, who is out with his third novel, a science fiction and fantasy.
Pant’s latest novel “Pawan The Flying Accountant”, is about a character who is an accountant by day and a demigod by night.
But he’d rather care about the Goods and Service Tax (GST) than his superpowers even less so about life himself.
Pant started off as an author with “Wednesday Soul The Afterlife with Sunglasses” in 2011 and followed it with “Under Delhi” in 2015.
While the former was a pure fantasy, the latter had a more linear plot with a more realistic story about a girl fighting rapists in Delhi.
Talking about his writing process, Pant said during his first book it struck to him as an author one doesn’t realize that there is a certain “marketing aspect” of any novel and back then (2011), he had no idea how to do it.
“So that (marketing) is something that has definitely evolved, where I have understood that a book doesn’t become a bestseller (on its own), you need to make it one, push it, especially if you are writing something which is unique from everything else,” he told PTI.
“Pawan”, he said, combines both the reality and fantasy elements of his previous books to create a character who is believable despite “crazy amounts” of fantasy around him.
“He (the main character) is a super human who is invincible but also suicidal, and there are species of him who are assigned to protect India. The story combines fantasy, sci-fi, mythology and all this in the backdrop of a battle between India and China set in the Northeast,” revealed Pant, who wrote for television before venturing into stand-up comedy.
Pant also noted that there was very little work available in India in the fantasy and sci-fi genre.
“If you think, only a few names, like Samit Basu, pop up.
But there is a lot of mythological fantasy, which is slightly different from what I am attempting to do.”
“The reason we have so less work in fantasy and sci-fi is that our mythology is so rich. There are so many stories from there to take and we are so fascinated by them because those stories are the archetype for so many others (new stories) that are being used in say, Bollywood,” he said.
The novel, he said, is targeted primarily at people in the 15-24 age group the group that “consumes” his comedy – but is pretty much for everyone.-PTI
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
