Friday, June 5, 2015

Satyapal Chandra: "Chick lit writers have forced me to do something very different from them" (Interview)



Satyapal Chandra is an Indian Author, Director, Screenwriter, Lyricist and Motivational Speaker. He has penned novels of various genres including Romance, Crime, Suspense, Mystery, Social, Supernatural and young adult fiction.A man of many hats with having a fiery passion to make a difference. Born and raised up in a small farming family situated in Bihar Satyapal Chandra has created a buzz through his different works. Having a very rough childhood and facing various kinds of problems like Poverty to violence, he has given a new dimension to his work. A staunch believer of Liberal humanism and peaceful coexistence of everyone, he has initially studied Hindi and Urdu. 

1. How do you feel after writing 10 novels now? Not many authors achieve this in such short duration and at such young age?

First of all thank you for your appreciation for “When Heaven Falls Down”. I really appreciate your efforts and review of my most ambitious novel. Now coming to your question, as you know I belong to a lower class family. I have seen all sorts of violence, pain, and torture in my life. These things all together always motivated me to do something out of the box. Obviously, after seeing my dreams coming true is cheerful feeling for me. I never compare myself to other writers and look at what they are doing. This motivates me to work limitlessly without caring about what real scenario in industry is. And this is the only reason I have my ten novels in the market. 

2. How is the feeling of achieving fame and success after coming from a small village of Bihar where people do not even imagine doing something of this sort?

No matter how hard we try to run from the reality, but the fact is Bihar is really a far cry from other states in negative way. Being the son of a farmer, I always wanted to achieve big in life. I had dreams, ambitions and talent and I wanted to make full of it. Though I had support of no one but when I look back I realize to achieve big, you need to start with a belief. Things haven’t changed though. I am still struggling to live my life with happiness but still seeing myself standing at this position makes me happy for initiating my steps towards my dream.


3. Tell us something about your latest book “When Heaven Falls down”?

“When Heaven Falls Down” is my personal favourite. Out of the ten books I will put previous nine novels at one side and this one at other. I wanted to step out of stereotypes and write something mature. And that was when I started writing it. I have tried to show many dark hidden secrets of India with a mature perspective. Not only this but even in the romance section of the book, as you would have seen, I have tried to present something very different from what other chick lit writers are writing about. Ever since the launch I am yet to get any negative review (apart from those who are offended) and this proves that my attempt did not go in vain.


4. Why did you chose a sad title? 

My core really aches when I see teenage writers increasing the bulk in the market. Literature is a global heritage and the scenario these days really scares me of where our literature would go. This was the reason I wanted to put forward something mature which could do justice with literature. Calling it sad is your personal opinion. All I have tried to put forward the reality and we all know how it is.


5. Is WHFD just a love story or more than that?

From my perspective this novel is far more than romance. I can proudly say it has mature romance with a comment on many social aspects like communal conflagrations, medical negligence, love-jihad, prostitution and many more. Though it has good amount of romance but I, even proudly, say it’s not a love story. But I leave the final judgement on the readers.


6. How did you find enough courage to take upon issues like religious communities, godmen, love-jihad, medical system, education system, condition of women etc so frankly? 

The real courage i got to put forward so many controversial realities in front of our nation was from my background. I have seen worst days in my life and that forces me to reveal why people like me has to bear so much pain in this secular country. I would also thank Vivaksh Singh for giving me regular support and strength. After reading Arvind Adiga sir’s ‘The White Tiger’ I was really inspired to write something transperantly and I cannot forget to mention his name for giving me courage too. Last but not the least the real heroes for making me brave enough to write it are the same chick lit writers who forced me to do something very different from them.


7. We heard about a recent controversy that took place in Gaya, Bihar. Can you please throw a light upon that and what’s your take on it?

As our real motto while writing this novel was to depict the real India that exists in roots of our country. We just want to transparent the satire or hypocrisy prevailing in the society .   Although in our efforts I really did not downgrade any religion or society as I personally respect all of them but some offended people are just following a blunder which misleads others too. But I did not give up presenting my views about real India to all people and I again want people to judge the book by their own not just blindly influenced by few bunch of misguided men. I have started getting death threats but I have believe in my readers that they would stand with me.


8. You have specially thanked Chandan Kumar Chandhan and Vivaksh Singh in your book. Can you let us know their role in this book?

Vivaksh Singh was no doubt the backbone of this novel. Without this guy this novel could not have been done. His creative mind and brilliant ideas are what reflects in the whole novel. You can understand his passion for this novel by imagining that a boy suffers the greatest loss of his life as his father to whom he was eternally close left him in the morning, and by evening he was still worried about this novel’s promotions. I mean to say which 17 year old boy endures such passion and commitment towards literature. I think knowing this you can yourself estimate his involvement and sheer presence in making of this novel. Even when I asked him to see his home for his loss he told me one thing which blew my mind, “ Sir please don’t come here by getting into emotions and just focus on our dream by not compromising. My loss cant get undone but you must carry my father’s vision that he used to have about us”. This boy has got something different in him.
 Chandan Kumar Chandan, on the other hand, has always been a source of motivation for me. His help in my research work and motivation when I thought nothing would work was something which made everything possible. His practical approach towards reality proved to be very helpful to me. In the end all I would say is this particular book doesn’t just belong to me but three of us.


9. How has been your association with Mahaveer Publication till date?

Well Mahaveer Publications have been really good  and supportful during our journey of making this book. Even my first novel ‘The Most Eligible Bachelor’ was published by them. All the staff members are  genuinely active and offers a hand whenever required. The most effective thing about Mahaveer Publications is that they don’t put any hard obligations on the content of the book. They respect our views and support us which most of the publication house lacks in the respective of controversial theme.


10. Any word for your fans who love reading your books back to back?

First of all I thank my readers who always stand by my side no matter what the situation appears. At this time too I thoroughly need their support. One thing I can assure is taht now we have moved on from those stereotypes and now we are putting our core to bring some matured stuff which really conveys a strong message. All our work is based on a tight research and from now we would set the parameters for our quality of content internationally.



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