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Giving Indian Mythology an 'Epic' Twist - An Interview with Author Anand Neelakantan.
Hello, everybody. I think I'm having some sort of a fangirl moment right now because I have Anand Neela Kantan, Bestselling author of the Bahamai Series, columnist and screenwriter. Joining me in in this conversation today. Anand is a prolific writer with several best selling books. To his credit, his debut novel, Asura, has sold over half a million copies and is listed by Amazon as one of the 100 books to be read in a lifetime
Hi Ramya, thank you for inviting the Soil app. I am also looking forward to this interview and I hope the questions will not be too tough for me to handle to go forward via
Answering your question, Ramya, I was always a storyteller right from my childhood. I have told in many interviews I was very fond of lying, making up stories, lying a lot. Living in my own fantasy world. Only thing is that I used to publish in local magazines and all. Mostly I started writing in Malayalam, but it was very late. Only ten years ago, nine years ago that I got published in English Anand. That is the Asura
Thank you so much for that. Anand, the most intriguing aspect of your books, be it Asura the Aja series or Vanara, is that you have chosen to bring the antagonist point of view to the spotlight. Mahabharata from Duryodana's perspective, the story of Bali, the much wronged Varna from Ramya or Ravana, the most enigmatic of antagonists ever written about in Indian mythology. So my question to you is this what is it about these characters that draws you to focus more on their stories
Han. It is always fascinating to write about characters who have shades of Gray. If I had to write another story about Lord Ram or Krishna, then there is no need for me to write. That right, because so many poets and great writers have written about them in the last 2000 or 3000 years, the challenge was writing it from the other perspective, seeing the entire Ramya and Mahabharata with a fresh set of eyes. So that is what fascinated me. The challenge was that fascinated me
It is becoming an independent language which has very less relationship in its EDMs and its way. It is used with either the British one or the American one. It is becoming one among Indian languages. And most of these books are in this new language which is getting high visibility, something new in all Indian languages. This process has been happening for thousands of years that we are doing it in English is the only thing that is making it stand out
Thank you. Thank you so much. The books are indeed getting adapted for a Netflix series. What we have to understand is that it is not something which which I decided to write on a vim. It was an official prequel. I was called by the producers, the director himself and was asked to develop this story essay. What do you call the back story of the Bahamari feelings? So already they had it in mind to make it into make the franchise bigger
Wow, that's so interesting to know about Anand. And I cannot, quite frankly, wait for the series to start streaming so that I can binge watch all the seasons in one go again once again. Congratulations. And of course, as you say, Sewgami and Katapa are probably household names in India, all thanks to the films. So my question is how was it trying to work with other set of characters that were so strongly established in people's minds?
So I had to create another world and had to eliminate certain characters by the end of the series because you should have the continuity for the film and whichever characters I had created, I had to find a logical ending for them, not necessarily death, but some other logical ending and excuse to show why they are there in the film or not there in the film and what they are doing in the film. So it was a very tough project to write
Anand I think you just might have given us our own Daisy version of Game of Thrones. So I'm really excited, as I said, to be catching the Web series on Netflix. I would love to to wrap up our interview with something fun, a rapid fire round of questions if I may. So I'm going to be throwing a couple of questions your way. And I'd like you to answer them with the first thought that comes to your mind. I without much thinking
Favourite character is Ravan, Obviously and Bhadra, of course. And in Bahamari Series jimotha
Thank you so much, Anand, for being such a sport and playing along. I've had a wonderful time talking to you and taking in all the insights you've shared, more power to your words. And maybe I'll be fortunate enough to be reading several more bestsellers from you. Thank you. Thank you once again
Thank you, Ramya. Thank you for the interview. This was a different experience, this app and the questions, everything. Thank you for the wonderful interview. And I wish you all the best for your for success. Stay safe in covet times that you and your family and friends also be safe. Thank you so much. You're