Anushka Ravishankar, well known author of children’s books and co-founder of Duckbill Books, added a first to her credit when she began novelising Nagesh Kukunoor’s forthcoming film, Dhanak . Many a book had been made into a film but very few films have turned novels. Anushka Ravishankar’s novelisation of Dhanak may be a forerunner to this trend in India.
Talking to us minutes after the book launch at SodaBottleOpenerWala, Anushka discloses that she worked round the clock to finish the book in seven days. “We saw the trailer and found it interesting,” Anushka says, talking about her colleague who felt the film would make for an interesting read as a children’s novel.
“We spoke to Elahe and asked for a screening. This was new for all of us, as novelisation of a film hasn’t been done, to my knowledge, in India. We were all cautiously enthusiastic. There are some lovely children’s films being made with unusual storylines, unfortunately we don’t find this unusualness in stories in children’s literature in India. So we’ve been talking that it would be great to novelise children’s films,” she shares.
Anushka was taken in by the rural setting and the unusual premise. Writing the book, she was aware that she had to get into the minds of the characters developed by the filmmaker. “The characters and story aren’t mine. I had to arrive at a balance. I had to reflect the filmmaker’s thoughts and yet it should read like a novel, not like an abridged screenplay,” she says.
She wouldn’t recommend writing a book within a week. Ideally, she would have preferred to watch a film a few times and mull over it. But she observes how, in countries where novelisations are common, the writer gets barely a fortnight because the books shape up after the final edit and prior to the film’s release. “Nagesh gave me the screenplay and to his credit, all the characters were explained clearly. Where I needed clarification on plot points, I discussed with him,” she says.
Travelling with the Dhanak team and unveiling her book in different cities, Anushka is happy that she remained true to the film. Dhanak (Duckbill; Rs. 199) is available in leading bookstores
