Gone are the days when the damsel in distress would be rescued by the knight in shining armour and the two would fall in love with each other. These days, there is more to romance than these clichéd ideas of chivalry. For the past few years, the Indian literary scene has seen a consistent rise in the number of books in the romance genre, written by Indian writers. Authors such as Nikita Singh, Durjoy Datta, Sudeep Nagarkar, Ravinder Singh and Novoneel Chakraborty among others, have become a name to reckon with in the romance space and their books are eagerly awaited by their scores of fans. And it’s not just their fans, but even the literary circle that has taken note of their achievements.
Durjoy, with bestselling books such as Till The Last Breath... and You Were My Crush! among others has been the recipient of the Crossword Book Award for Popular Choice, Fiction for Our Impossible Love in 2017.
Sudeep received the Youth Achievers Award in August 2013 for being one of the highest-selling romance authors in India. His book She Swiped Right Into My Heart was on No 1 in Neilsen bestselling charts for more than 10 consecutive weeks. Novoneel’s Forever Is True made it to the Amazon’s Memorable Books of 2017. Ravinder’s I Too Had A Love Story and Tell Me A Story and Nikita’s If It’s Not Forever... It’s Not Love are some novels that have not only found a way into readers’ hearts, but also received critical acclaim.
CONNECT WITH THE READER
While romance has always been a widely-read genre, most Indians have grown up on a diet of international titles. But in the last couple of years, Indian authors have taken to this genre like a fish takes to water. Novoneel Chakraborty, whose debut book in 2008, A Thing Beyond Forever, turned out to be a bestseller, believes that more than the genre, the English language has become a tool of empowerment for us. “Firstly, there’s a growing need in youngsters to feel that empowerment. Secondly, the ‘romance’ books in English are giving readers a validation to their own personal heartbreaks and failures in their love life, thus, becoming aspirational for them. When I was growing up, the English language had not made it to our bedroom. I never talked to my parents in English, but today, the scenario has changed. Thirdly, ‘romance’ books are easy to read. There are no vocabulary problems or complexities as such. So, it’s easier to grasp,” he states.
Vaishali Mathur, Executive Editor & Head language publishing, Rights, Penguin Random House India, attributes the success of Indian authors in the romance space, to the understanding of their readership. “These are all authors who have over a decade, connected with their readership, so they know a lot about who their readers are, where they live, what they like and love, etc. Their stories and characters are therefore relatable for their readers and hence the massive following,” she believes.
REAL AND FLAWED
On the homepage of Nikita’s website is a quote by the 26-year-old author that states, “I’m tired of reading about damsels in distress who need someone else to save them. That’s outdated. Women today are their own knights in shining armour.” It is perhaps this need to keep things real and relatable, both in terms of the stories and the characters, that makes their books appealing to the masses. “I write about people like me and my friends. I don’t write about fantastical characters who live in the clouds and have a house made of rainbows. It’s the realistic aspect of the storytelling in my books to which my readers respond,” says the author, who has written 10 romance novels, and is writing her next.
The growing popularity of these books may also be attributed to the fact that while on the one hand, they all deal with different types of love, on the other there are a lot of sub-genres weaved in, too. A romance novel can also be a thriller or have a crime plot woven through it, so it also attracts the reader who may not be so high on the mush factor. Take Novoneel’s romantic thrillers for instance. The author admits that he was wary about readers’ reactions when he wrote his first book, as he knew that he wasn’t playing to the gallery. “These are stories about people whose actions can easily be judged. And thus, I wasn’t ever (even today) not sure how a book is supposed to do. I believe what has worked for me is, I’m the only one in the commercial fiction English writing zone, who writes about the real and heartbreaking side of romance. By that, I don’t mean a character has to die in the end. What I mean is I am more into ‘fatalistic’ romance writing where you know something will remain incomplete and shatter midway,” he says. At present, his first short story collection titled Cheaters, dealing with the theme of infidelity, has just released and he’s working on his next thriller. The rights of his The Stranger Trilogy have also been acquired to be made into a web series.
MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW
Vaishali seconds the authors’ opinions. “I feel romances today are not clichéd or formulaic because the stories are based on the current scenarios. For instance, in Durjoy Datta’s The Boy With A Broken Heart and The Boy Who Loved, the characters are flawed and almost violent and earnest in terms of what they want from each other. In the case of Ravinder Singh, his stories derive from the issues in the society these days. In his latest book, Will You Still Love Me? the characters belong to Punjab and North-East and fall in love. Sudeep Nagarkar and Novoneel Chakraborty also have stories and characters which are very today and create great excitement amongst their readership,” she adds.
It’s obvious that the romance genre for Indian authors and their readers is a space that’s just expanding and is open to exploration. Nikita sums up the scenario with her observation, “Romance has overpowered all other genres in the film industry in India, so that supply-demand chain is complete. The state of Indian television is pitiful. There’s an entire population of English-medium educated millennials, who have turned to Hollywood films and American TV series, but they’re not yet ready to fully embrace reading as a habit. For them, Indian fiction is a great place to start, which is what has given romance fiction, a great platform — since the packaging is so palatable.”
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