The crowd-pullers on the opening day of the Bangalore Literature Festival were pulp fiction author Chetan Bhagat and Bollywood’s ‘Mardaani’ Rani Mukherjee. The common thread that flowed through their talks was, surprisingly, women and their place in society. Young enthusiastic techies from the heartland of Electronics City milled around to get a glimpse of these two stars, as did college students and upcoming writers. And neither of the speakers disappointed the modest, but curious crowd.
The very topic ‘From Full Wives to Half Girlfriend — the Women in Chetan Bhagat’s Novels’ held out much promise of a juicy conversation, and did get pretty personal initially, much to the delight of the audience and Bhagat’s growing unease. Author and Bhagat’s editor Shinie Antony led the conversation through his life in Bollywood, his critics and 'haters' on social media, where the Indian woman stands today, and the controversy surrounding Deepika Padukone's cleavage photo.
"India is still a land of extremes of either a Western form of feminism or a world where they have no say. A median feminist movement hasn't come yet," said Bhagat. He also, funnily, insisted that when a man writes about women's issues, it has a bigger impact, "so I'm writing about it in the papers".
The audience had many a question for Bhagat starting with 'Do you believe in numerology because all your book titles have numbers' to 'should you give up your full-time career to become a writer?'
Chetan Bhagat's 'Half Girlfriend' launches on October 1 and Chetan made it a point to mention that Flipkart, whose warehouse is in Bangalore, will be shipping out the largest pre-order of his books.
Rani Mukherjee, dressed rather casually in jeans, kurti and a stole, took the stage with cinema writer Bhawana Somaaya. She recounted how she had prepped for her role as a crime branch officer in her latest film Mardaani . "While parents encourage their daughters to learn singing and dancing, they must also let them learn self-defence techniques, considering the growing instances of crimes against women," she stressed.
She also spoke of how the spate of realistic cinema coming out of Bollywood has empowered directors to make films like Queen and Mardaani . Actresses are getting to play their age and audience are more accepting of it. Rani said this was her first ever experience at a literature festival.
