Sharjah International Book Fair: Amish Tripathi

Indian fantasy novelist Amish Tripathi talks about his best-selling Shiva Trilogy.

Amish Tripathi will be appearing at the Sharjah International Book Festival. Courtesy Amish Tripathi

Fantasy and adventure meet mythology and philosophy in Amish Tripathi's best-selling Shiva Trilogy novels, which have sold 2 million copies and have been translated into 14 languages.

The author, the current toast of Indian literary circles, says he always looks forward to visiting. “I like coming to the UAE because there are so many people of South Asian descent there and you hear Hindi being spoken so much that you feel at home, which is a lovely feeling,” says Tripathi, popularly known by his first name, ahead of his appearance at the Sharjah International Book Fair on Friday.

“Of course, things are so organised there but most importantly, I think the UAE is a beacon of liberalism in the region.”

He dislikes the term “fans” when talking about people who enjoy his work, but says he looks forward to meeting his readers at the event. “I love talking to my readers,” he says. “Often, I learn things from them, which gives me ideas for my books.”

Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy – The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras – is a mythical fantasy set in 1900BC and based on the Hindu deity Shiva.

What made him leave a career in banking to become a writer and why did he choose mythology as a subject?

“I never wanted to be a writer actually,” he says. “I was a banker for 14 years. It was more like the subject took hold of my soul and I simply had to write it. So I would say the subject chose me.

“To paraphrase Shakespeare, some people are born writers, some achieve their career in writing after a lot of hard work and some people have the career of writing thrust upon them. I belong to the last group.”

Tripathi says his books began as a purely philosophical thesis – an exploration of the question: “What is evil?”

“That philosophical thesis over time got converted into an adventure,” he says. “And I felt the best hero would be Shiva, who is considered the destroyer of evil in Hindu mythology. And even better, he’s said to be anti-­elitist, a brilliant dancer and a fierce warrior.”

But success did not come easy. His book was rejected by every publisher he approached and he eventually decided to self-­publish his first novel.

“They all said my book had no hopes of success since it’s based on a religious topic,” he says. “According to them, the youth, which is the main market in India, were only interested in love stories or corporate scandals.”

In addition to being available in several Indian languages, including Marathi, Tamil and Malayalam, his books are now being published in Estonian, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia. How do audiences unfamiliar with Indian mythology respond to his books?

“The editing staff working on my book internationally – in the UK, Portugal or Vietnam – none of them are of Indian origin,” he says. “They initially approach it as an adventure story and then gradually say it gets them interested in Indian and other ­philosophies.”

The roots of Tripathi’s interest in mythology lie in his childhood.

“I grew up in a religious family,” he says. “My grandfather was a pandit [priest] in Varanasi, apart from being a university teacher of mathematics and physics. So my family was religious and yet liberal, learning about different religions.”

The first part of his trilogy has been snapped up by Hollywood and Bollywood for film adaptations. In India, the filmmaker Karan Johar has bought the movie rights. And Tripathi, who’s involved as a creative consultant, trusts him completely.

“As long as it captures the soul of the book,” he says, while remaining tight-lipped about the casting.

A voracious reader, Tripathi reads seven or eight books a month from a diverse range of genres. "The last two books I enjoyed reading were Fighting to the End by Christine Fair and the classical Sanskrit writer Kalidasa's play Malavikagnimitram."

Last year, he was paid a nearly US$1million (Dh3.67m) advance by the publisher Westland for his upcoming book series, the subject of which he has yet to reveal. But he says he is under no pressure to produce a huge hit.

“I write what feels right to me,” he says. “I think about what others might think once I begin the marketing process.”

Tripathi’s advice for success

1. Don’t write for money. Write for your soul, for your heart.

2. Do not overlook the practical matter of earning money. So keep a job to pay your bills then you don’t have to compromise on your writing.

3. Once you’ve completed your book, then you should be a practical, pragmatic marketing person. It’s a fallacy to think that a good book sells itself.