I hope that my writing starts interesting conversations.

Tulika Mehrotra, 27, has a new book out— Crashing B-Town (Penguin), based in Bollywood, and talking about all the glamour, struggles, and trappings of it. A solid training in finance and fashion design gives Tulika’s work a breezy panache.

“I had always been a very artistic kid—constantly drawing, painting, writing stories. I took up writing seriously when I felt like I was hitting a wall in my professional career. It was a form of venting

my unhappiness. I am motivated to write stories that ask questions. I want people to read my books and perhaps recognise some of the issues raised in their own lives. While I don’t want to thrust my views, I do hope that my writing starts interesting conversations.

In the entire period before I actually got a break, I received incredible support from my family. My mom and dad collectively are my rock! My brother is the ultimate support with his calm, cool stabilising energy to balance my creative chaos.

I always sought out avenues to grow as an artist. In fact, my big break came via a writing conference—an event that brought together wonderful creative people who were committed to improving their craft. Apart from all the learning, I met my agent here. That was the nicest outcome, and that conference made it happen.

The writing process for me is a constantly evolving journey. I try to force myself to write every single day. Many times, I’ll be staring at a blank screen with no idea what to do. Other times, I move to pen and paper and just start scribbling notes and undecipherable graphs. I create character sketches, plot outlines, relationship graphs and interview experts on the subject matter I’m writing on. It’s all very unscientific, but I find that structure within chaos is my ideal method of madness.”