Hello readers,
Today I am going to interview the heart throb of many girls, Sudeep Nagarkar( our Romance King). It took me months to get a proper interview session with him since he was extremely busy with his latest release She Swiped Right Into my Heart. He couldn’t send me a written interview though yet we had a telephonic interview and I must say he was very patient while answering all the questions. It was an amazing experience. The other person I want to thank is Manvi Singh akka Maisha who was with me in this experience. She was the one who linked me with SUdeep Sir and she only converted the recordings into written form as I was stuck with other engagements. A huge hug to you girl..:) So, lets start then ..:)
- When did you realise you wanted be a writer?
When life threw challenges back at me, and engineering was a ruckus I started penning down my thoughts. In the initial years, it was just me and my diary who knew about my words, soon it spread to my dear ones and that’s when one of them suggested me to go ahead and get it published, that’s how it happened. Somethings never come planned, this is one of them for me. When I started liking my pen more than my computer screen with some IT statistics, I knew this is what I was to be, this is what I’ll be happy in.
At that time, I had no clue what a bestseller is, I had no clue what one needs to do to be a bestseller. - How you felt when your first published book was in your hand?
Frankly speaking, I was scared. Since I was in my last year of engineering and my eighth semester exams were on my head, I had no idea what to do and what to prioritise. In addition to that, I had fuming parents who had no clue with what I was doing, plus, the most difficult task was to convince them that the book is a fiction and not a true story, but yes, all’s well that ends well and that has been one of the most memorable moment of my life.
- Since your novels are mostly based on romance, and you’re the present day Romance King, why do you think this genre so special to you?
You cannot specifically call me the “Romance King” since my stories do have some other important elements and messages to send across to my readers. Every time I’ve tried that there should be something new in the book, for example the new book, She Swiped Right Into My Heart, I’ve tried to punch across the trending LGBT issue which is another stigma to our society because I feel they should be granted with their own rights and justice should be provided to this section of our society since humans are humans and nothing can change that fact. Even in the last book, You’re Trending In My Dreams, I perfectly told people that no women is weak and that’s how they should be treated, i.e. equal.
- Would you like to try some other genre?
For I’d probably need more experience to that because for example a mythological writer might need a lot research work before penning down a book which probably isn’t my thing. I don’t say that I’m a good writer, but yes, I’d say I’m a good storyteller who portrays the reality to the world quite fictionally.
- So, tell me something about your recent release, She Swiped Right Into My Heart?
Technically, the book covers up two major aspects, one is as I told you is LGBT and second is about the major thing which we all do face at some point or the other is our fight to be accepted in our peer group. So, it’s about these three distinct lives who are to emerge from their own personal dilemmas. The title tells a different story, but basically it’s not a love story. Rest, you should definitely read if you haven’t. 😉
- What all research work did you do for this novel?
Okay, since this book has a girl who had acceptance issues, I really had to look into one such being who’d make me get the feel of how it is to be bullied so I did meet one of my friends who had faced this, to know the gist of how it feels to be bullied and also, I had to know a lot about the LGBT groups by them itself so that’s what I did.
- Did you refer to any other novels regarding this topic?
I never really believed in the theoretical part of the LGBT issue. I wanted to put in life into my words so I preferred interacting with actual people who were a part of this group so I may understand their psyche about what’s happening with them and around them.
- So far, what has been your struggles to be where you are today?
Technically everybody has their own set of struggles, there are some who are struggling to get a publisher and sometimes even living up with the quality of writing is also a big task in hand and since I’ve taken writing as a full time job, I guess now I have more time to focus on this aspect of my writing, i.e. the expression of my words and the most important thing is to follow deadlines which is the major task in the whole process.
- Do you think publishers these days are exploiting the authors?If yes, then what could be possibly done to stop them?
I don’t think so that they are exploiting the authors since in my case, they were one of the pillars of success. They helped me reach where I am today and probably that’s the accurate job of a publisher. They’re the ones who suggest me that I should at least publish a book in a year because I have seen authors publishing a new book in a gap of 5- 6 months and probably, it do effect the sales of the previous book, so the publishers who are really exploiting authors, ain’t called to be publishers itself, according to me.
- What is important for a book, good writing or good marketing?
I guess, the mixture of both is equally important in today’s world as we cannot eliminate any of the two factors and it’s not only about books but movies also, as they also require equal amount of marketing and the same amount of effort in acting and direction of the movie because once the movies or the books is in hand of the reader then probably the reader or the spectator might get disappointed which would effect his sales for the next thing which he endorse.
P.S. Also read my book review of the Book ‘She Swiped Right into mY Heart
/2016/06/12/she-swiped-right-into-my-heart-a-special-review/
