Their stories, their voices

This has been a year of headline grabbing autobiographies and publishing houses are only too glad

Naseeruddin Shah. Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

“ Halfway through the production of Mughal-e-Azam, we were not even talking to each other. The classic scene with the feather coming between our lips, which set a million imaginations on fire, was shot when we had completely stopped even greeting each other. ”

- Dilip Kumar, referring to his break-up with Madhubala, in Dilip Kumar – The Substance and The Shadow: An Autobiography.

“

I showed him (Ian Chappel) the size of the mirror in 2008 when we toured Australia. He should have realised that the man he is asking to stand in front of the mirror has played more cricket than him. ”

- Sachin Tendulkar in

Playing It My Way , recalling the incident when Ian Chappell had written in a column (in 2007) that Tendulkar should look at the mirror and ask himself if he was good enough to continue playing cricket.

Most personalities rarely let their guard down and when they do so in autobiographies, the books are page turners. With his uninhibited views on cinema and theatre, Naseeruddin Shah has always guaranteed good copy. So it didn’t come as a surprise when Shah revealed in his autobiography And Then One Day details of his soured relationship with his father Aley Mohammed Shah, first wife Purveen and how he considered parenthood and marriage as a burden. Shah also spoke of the days he tried marijuana and how he travelled with Smita Patil, Rohini Hattangadi and Bhakti Barve to London only to realise that Richard Attenborough had already finalised his cast for Gandhi .

Biographies and autobiographies are aplenty. Some make headlines when they are released and soon get relegated to forgotten corners of bookshelves. Only a few spur discussions and intense reader reviews. Apart from a no-holds-barred story, it’s the writing style that helps to keep the reader hooked. “In Naseeruddin Shah’s case, we were blessed to discover he was a natural writer with as much talent for the written word as he has for performing,” says Caroline Newbury, speaking on behalf of Penguin Random House. 

Publishers understand that not every celebrity is gifted with the written medium. In-house editors or a ghost writer steps in. Thomas Abraham, managing director, Hachette India, says that Sachin’s autobiography “was the result of over 200 hours of recordings where Sachin narrated his own story and the key cricketing highlights of his career to his co-writer Boria Majumdar.” London-based sports editor Roddy Bloomfield also pitched in. For celebrity memoirs, it is important to preserve the voice of the author, without which the book can never feel personal enough, reiterates Abraham.

Reactions to this year’s notable autobiographies, which include Mary Kom’s Unbreakable , Natwar Singh’s One Life is not Enough and Vinod Rai’s Not Just An Accountant have varied from frantic discussions on politically volatile content to the writing style. Publishing houses have been receiving bouquets and brickbats in equal measure. Sports buff Venkat Raghav doesn’t mince words to describe his disappointment with Sachin’s book. “As a cricket buff, I’d like to know how he felt when the board considered dropping him. In many places, the book reads like a match report and barely gives an insight into what Sachin felt. A mere ‘I felt good’ or ‘I felt bad’ won’t do. And I’d like to know more than just what happened in a match, for which the data is already available. The book pales when compared to Christopher Sandford’s biography on Imran Khan or Andre Agassi’s Open which I’d rate among the best autobiographies.”

However, there’s no denying the book’s brisk sales. “Look at the frenzy created by a few excerpts where it was clear that Sachin had been frank and forthright. The anticipation before the release as to what would be covered and what would be left out was also immense,” says Abraham, who feels that 25 or 50 years from now, Playing it My Way will be remembered as a record of cricketing times over two decades. Coming up from Hachette is a memoir from space hero Rakesh Sharma.

In 2015, Penguin will be publishing An Unfinished Agenda — K. Anji Reddy’s memoir of his life in the pharmaceuticals industry, Khursid Mahmud Kasuri’s Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove – an insider’s account of Pakistan’s foreign policy among others.

Reading List

One Life is Not Enough by Natwar Singh (Rupa Publications)

Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow, an autobiography (Rupa)

And Then One Day: A Memoir by Naseeruddin Shah (Penguin)

Sachin Tendulkar: Playing it my Way (Hachette India)

Unbreakable: an autobiography by M.C. Mary Kom (Harper Collins)

Not Just an Accountant by Vinod Rai (Rupa)