‘It’s a realistic novel’

Somnath Batabyal talks about how his years as a crime reporter influenced his first novel The Price You Pay. Excerpts from a conversation.

Somnath Batabayal

So, how much of it is true?

Several of the stories are true; they happened to me or around me. For example, the licence scam story and the kidnapping story are straight out of my early reporting years. The story of the policemen found sleeping in their vans was reported by colleagues in the Indian Express . Mayank is pretty much a lift from a policeman who started his career around the time I became a journalist and we became friends. Uday is a combination of two policemen I’ve known closely. Amir, my favourite character, is pure creation. The book is a realistic novel — about what journalists, especially young ones, would face. I have drawn from 10 years of ecstasies and lows to create the plot.

Why is your hero rather weak and unheroic?

Well, Abhishek did not start out as the hero. I had four main male characters. Midway through the book, he somehow ran away with the story. To be honest, I didn’t like him much. I have always been a sucker for romance and, if I aspired to be anyone in the novel, it would be Amir. Real life doesn’t have heroes. We have survivors. In that sense, all four are surviving in their different ways and paying a price for it. The compromises that Uday and Amir make are stark and dark. However, and this is where Abhishek runs away with the plot, his choices are those that most of us would make to get ahead in life. Suddenly, though, when we see it another person, we are slightly unsure of what a career and success demands from us.

There’s that hint of a sequel…

At the moment, I am done with the characters! There is nothing new to add. I have already moved too far into my second novel, whose planning and setting is very far removed from contemporary Delhi. But yes, I have heard whispers demanding a sequel. Who knows?

You have caught Delhi’s mood beautifully. How did that happen, given you were writing in London?

It is the yearning for another place, another time. The Delhi of my imagination is so very misty and wintery, full of food outlets and roadside stalls. It is romanticised. Distance is the most important thing to be able to reflect and write, whether on a city or a situation. It took me 10 years of being away from Delhi to get my thoughts together.

Tell us about the movie offer.

Well, one fine morning, I got a call from my publisher asking me if I had seen BA Pass , and it’s one of the few new films I have actually seen and enjoyed. When my publisher told me Ajay Bahl wanted the rights to my novel, I did a few immediate dance moves around the garden. Ajay told me what he loved about the book, what attracted him to the Delhi I had set out. He said he wanted to capture that essence. By the end of the conversation, we had sealed the deal.