A BOOK IS WORTH A 100 PICTURES: RAVI

The author talks about his 10th novel, a fictional take on the after-effects of demonetisation; adds his ‘singular objective’ when writing a book is to ‘entertain readers’

Ravi Subramanian, who is known for crafting intriguing stories around real-life incidents, is considered to be one of the finest thriller novelists in the country. “For me, writing a book is as much a process of realisation and learning as it is for the reader. Inspiration can strike you anywhere. It might be a newspaper you read, the television you watch, the conversations you have with strangers,” says the author, whose previous books explored The Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple incident, corporate corruption and the Bitcoin fiasco. Excerpts from the interview:

What was the idea behind writing, Don’t Tell The Governor (DTTG)?

I wanted to give my readers an engaging and entertaining thriller. That was the core idea behind writing DTTG. When I write a book, my singular objective is to entertain the readers. I want them to keep thinking long after they are done turning the last page of the book. This time, too, it was no different.

What kind of research went into writing the book?

When I write books on banking, not much of research is required. It is a familiar territory for me. For DTTG, I met quite a few bureaucrats, some ex-deputy governors of RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and people who worked closely with there. I also spoke to a few Bollywood stars to understand the intricate details of Bollywood happenings.

You’ve mentioned in an interview that you borrow heavily from reallife events and incidents.

I don’t add a controversial happening in my book just for the kick of it. I don’t force fit an event in the story. However, if there is a choice of including a fictional story or a real-life instance in my books, the preference is always for the latter.

You took a detour with In The Name Of God, the story didn’t explore banking sector. What made you return to the genre that you’ve mastered?

It was a kind of divine intervention. When demonetisation happened in 2016, I was writing In The Name Of God — a thriller based on the Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple, in Thiruvananthapuram, and its endless wealth. I was almost done with the first draft. A few days after demonetisation, a publisher friend, Ananth Padmanabhan, called me and asked me, ‘Are you thinking what I am thinking!’ Knowing him to be one who never missed a publishing opportunity, I smiled, and said ‘Of course’. I said. ‘Demonetisation it is!’ And that’s how the book was conceived. I would call it more than just a coincidence that the book I was writing was sed on the Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the publisher friend who called me was Ananth Padmanabhan. The book had to be written. I finished In The Name Of God, and started thinking about the new book. Around that time, there was quite a bit of noise around the RBI governor not endorsing demonetisation. That made me consider making the RBI governor a protagonist of the novel. And then one thing followed the other. RBI governor and demonetisation, led me to the PM’s speech in which he talked about terrorism, fake currency, black money and money laundering. There was lot of hullabaloo about laundering through the jewellery trade. And then, suddenly there was so much to include in a thriller. So many plot lines would mean a fast-paced, intriguing thriller, jumping from one plot to the other, at a feverish pace. And that’s what DTTG finally turned out to be.

How difficult is it to take up a factual incident and give it a fictional spin? What is it that you enjoy the most doing that?

Fiction has an obligation to look real. And yes, the RBIgovernment conflict is a theme that runs throughout the book. It is just coincidence that the two decided to clash in real life, just around the time my book DTTG came out. Trust me, I have no role in that. Even in my previous book, I had a jeweller named Nirav Choksi who is a fraud. Many people went ballistic because the book came some six months before Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi were identified as perpetrators in what came to be known as the PNB scam (Punjab National Bank Scam). A picture is worth a 1000 words. By the same logic a book, is worth a 100 pictures. That’s a lot.

What was your personal take on demonetisation?

I am sure the people who inflicted demonetisation had their reasons. There were easier and better ways to achieve whatever demonetisation is said to have achieved.

I am sure the people who inflicted demonetisation had their reasons. There were easier and better ways to achieve whatever demonetisation is said to have achieved. RAVI SUBRAMANIAN, AUTHOR