Romancing Bollywood

Bollywood is known for its mushy romances and now it is inspiring authors of Mills & Boon romances. Ruchi Vasudeva, fellow-winner of Harlequin India’s Passions Aspiring Authors contest 2012, who debuted with her novel Bollywood Fiancé for a Day in August, talks about her writing journey as a romance author.

Congrats, Ruchi, on the release of your debut Mills & Boon. You must be so excited. So how does it feel to be a Published Author?

Exhilarating! It’s an incomparable sense of accomplishment. Just to know that what you set to do, finally you’ve done it, that all those vague ideas and words roaming in your head and not letting you rest till you typed them down, have now a tangible existence…it’s wonderful.

Writers often draw on their own feelings/experience while writing novels. Did that happen with you as well while you were penning Vishakha and Zaheer’s story?

Well, at one level, this story is the exploration of interaction of two people from different backgrounds, so yes in part I have drawn from real life. While I don’t know an actor personally, I do know that people from different professions and social circles have different outlooks. For instance, woman doctors being busy, dress simply even at get-togethers. Most of them won’t bother with make-up on daily basis. Vishakha is like that but something happens to make her question the way she’s been living. So it started by observing people. Thankfully, imagination filled in the rest. 🙂

Bollywood plays a major role in your book… are you a big fan of Bollywood movies and what are some of your favourite films?

Oh yes, I definitely am…Bollywood is such a big part for us Indians 🙂 My favourite movie surprisingly is an old one from the sixties, Waqt. I love the courtroom scene. Sunil Dutt is simply brilliant as a lawyer. I’ve watched it dozens of times and I never get tired of it. I also love Chupke Chupke, a hilarious oldie and the late Yash Chopra’s incomparable Lamhe.

You have already completed your second book. How easy/difficult was it to write as compared to your first book?

The first time, I wrote and rewrote a large part of the book as I got to know the characters. I had to discard a lot of scenes that didn’t work in context of the book.
The second one was a completely different experience. It was a breeze! It took time to chart out the characters, yes. But once I had them, then whoosh, my muse took off and never stopped till I typed out The End. I’m still a little breathless from the ride!

How and where do you find the inspiration for a story?

Mostly it just pops into my head. For Bollywood Fiancé for a Day, for instance, it came to me as a scene in which the girl is under the glare of cameras and not liking it at all. And the hero is the actor sitting opposite her. At that time I didn’t know why or how those two ended up there. She was troubled and angry and he was stepping out of his way to help her. After much brainstorming it developed into the present story.

So I can’t pinpoint when and how it happens. Sometimes it’s like, you don’t find a story, the story finds you. A conversation turn, a news article or something you observe can lead you to imagine and fly off with the idea.

What next for Ruchi, the Author?
My second book with Harlequin is out in December. I won a contest held by Harper Collins India and the story will be published in an anthology, and will also come out in December. And I can’t wait to get started on my third book!

Congrats once again, Ruchi, and wish you all the luck in your writing endeavours!

Thanks for hosting me, Adite. From your questions I can see your journalistic bend of mind. Really enjoyed being here. I’ll leave you with the blurb of Bollywood Fiancé for a Day.

The man of her Bollywood dreams

Winning the chance to meet the ultimate Bollywood heart-throb, Zaheer Saxena, is just what Vishakha needs to take her mind off her recent humiliation—being jilted the week before her wedding! And when gorgeous Zaheer offers to be her fake fiancé, the chance to save face with her family is just too tempting…

It’s a deal that benefits them both—Zaheer is warding off any unwanted female attention until his next film is finished—but can Vishakha trust herself not to hope that her dream fiancé for a day will be her forever man?
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Buy links for the book: Harlequin India, Flipkart, Infibeam.
You can also connect with Ruchi Vasudeva at Facebook, Twitter and her website