After tasting success as a popular newspaper columnist, former actor Twinkle Khanna has added another jewel in her crown. Her satirical non-fiction book Mrs Funnybones has sold over 100,000 copies since it was released in Mumbai on August 18 last year, putting the on the bestseller list.
Khanna describes herself in her book as someone who “crafts satirical stories and funny anecdotes when she is not running a design business, selling candles or running in circles around her small but rather odd family”.
The actor-turned-entrepreneur-turned-writer believes nothing in life is sacred except laughter. We caught up with Mrs Funnybones for a quick tête-à-tête.
What is in store for you as a writer?
I am halfway through my second book and right now busy performing my version of the Produnova with my laptop, and I feel like I am going to land straight on my head.
What’s the best compliment you’ve received for your book?
That I have readers everywhere: from a radiologist who decides to compliment me on my writing while inserting a probe to check my ovaries to 80-year-olds who send me emails. And, of course, women my age everywhere. I seem to be known as much by the moniker Mrs Funnybones as my own name these days. The book was about how a modern woman looks at India and how India looks right back at her. I am glad that India seems to be looking back at me with a grin.
How much of your book is fact and how much fiction?
Well, I don’t know the exact percentages despite my rather decent math skills. But let’s just say some facts, a little fiction, bat wings, tiny bones and some nitrous oxide all ended up in my brewing cauldron.
Your book could make for a funny web series. Any plans to make a foray into that space?
People have been coming to me wanting to convert the book into a web series, but it isn’t something that terribly excites me.
Which are some of your favourite satirical non-fiction books?
I don’t really read non-fiction, but I have grown up on a steady diet of Wodehouse and of course, science fiction.
