A Bollywood thrillathon
In the fourth of his Bollywood Knights series, Nico Raposo has his teen detectives trying to solve the mystery of a missing diamond
I’ve likened Mumbai today to the 1970s New York City I grew up in: decayed, electric, corrupt, alive and bursting with infinite possibilities
Nico Raposo has written about him on his website in spiral lines, zig- zagging letters, turning at corners, upside down at top, curling everywhere. He does not want his site to be too serious, it has to express something about him — a humorous man writing his books, making his plays, in his humorous ways. In his book, Shoot the Bluebird, fourth in his Bollywood Knights series, Nico has his three favourite teen detectives trying to solve the mystery of a missing diamond called Bluebird, that disappeared in the 1960s.
“When an aging starlet says it’s been in her possession and has just been stolen, the Bollywood Knights must find it and return it to its rightful owner,” Nico outlines the plot. The man who claims to have come from a family hailing from a halfdozen countries, and lives somewhere in New York, writes volumes about Bollywood in his novels. “Robert Frost said, ‘ Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in’. In this way, India is my home. I’ve likened Mumbai today to the 1970s New York City I grew up in: at once decayed, electric, corrupt, alive and bursting with infinite possibilities. I believe it’s this that has awakened such a connection in me.”
He began his series for a preteen audience. “But my editors at Penguin wanted the series skewed to an older demographic, with more danger, violence, and relationship stuff. Shoot the Peacock ( the first book) was hard to get my head around, because I was transitioning from nicey- nicey ‘ let’s talk about who hid the negatives over ice cream!’ to ‘ let’s see if we can get into that dance bar and find the murderer.’ Shoot the Falcon has a lot of Intelligence Bureau and terrorist activity. Bluebird marks a return to straightforward mystery form. Nagi, however, still likes icecream.”
Nagi is one of his teen detectives, who along with Madhuri help Raj Kapoor, the 17- year- old son of B- town’s biggest star, in solving mysteries. “Raj and his father Amit are loosely modelled on Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan,” says Nico but he leaves it to his readers to guess who the others are modelled on.