Author Chetan Bhagat: I don’t, but Indians care about films because they don’t read books
Author-columnist Chetan Bhagat returns to love stories after 12 years, embracing modern themes like age-gap romance while adapting to today's situationships.
For the 90s kids thriving on Reddit today, the most pop-ular (or unpopular) author back then was Chetan Bhagat. His dealing of nonchalant characters, with rarely something unique, gained popularity for falling into familiar tropes and got much-talked about. So much so that Chetan’s books even became instant fodder for mainstream Indian cinema.
Cut to 2025, the world has moved on, and so have the modern day characters or couples. Now, those living in the age of situationships have got a new talking-point with Chetan 2.0 returning to his OG loved-genre of love stories.
Excerpts from an interview:
Q. It’s 12 years since you last wrote about romance. The world has changed, and you’re back to writing the same genre. Why an old formula?
People love my love stories and that’s because there’s no formula in them. Each time it’s a fresh take on fresh issues. The age gap romance, in 12 Years, seemed bold and fresh and something I had not attempted yet. That’s why I felt it had something unique, which made me get back to love stories after more than a decade.
Q. So, this genre is not chosen with the agenda that it gets adapted for the screen; like your previous works?
That carries an assumption that I care a lot for the screen. I don’t care; Indians care because they don’t read books. So they are always asking me, ‘When is the movie coming?’ As if movie is the ultimate Nobel Prize! They believe that in Indian society films are up in the hierarchy of art forms; but it’s not. Films are the lazy man’s form of art consumption. I’ve had five adaptations of my works, and been part of six movies. It took a good amount of time from my life. But, I’ve reached an age where I don’t care much for that. I mean, ultimately, the joy you get from reading 2 States (his last book in the same genre), you’re not going to get from watching the movie.
Any book will trigger a reader’s imagination... I was also in a phase where I was fascinated by Bollywood. I grew up watching movies and saw the same actors call me to say, ‘We love your stories’. Of course you get carried away... But, finally, I realised that the true essence of what I enjoy doing is not that... For me, the biggest creative satisfaction come from writing a fresh story with fresh conflict and societal observations.
Q. How did you rewire yourself as a writer, to adapt to the modern age of ‘situationships’?
When my first book came out, there were no smartphones or even cellphones. I remember people used to tell me how they’d tear up the books in parts to exchange and read... Today, everybody has a phone in their pocket and is constantly entertained. So I had to change my plots too, embrace videos and social media and maybe that’s the reason I’m still around. I’ve tried to change and see the new generation non-judgmentally. Like I didn’t understand ghosting. For my value system it’s very rude. But I’m trying to come to terms with this, and the times we live in.
It’s a 51-year-old man writing a story about a 33-year-old guy falling in love with a 21-year-old girl. If not executed right, this bold story could’ve come across as creepy, strange and weird. But after 21 years of writing, I think I’ve reached a stage where I can handle this all, sensitively.
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