The world seems to be tripping on fantasy, what with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and its ilk being made into gargantuan moolah-raking Hollywood successes. So, it’s not surprising to hear that Samit Basu’s just-released humans-with-superpowers novel Turbulence is already being hotly optioned by Bollywood. “We haven’t signed anything yet, but there are a couple of producers interested,” says Samit, preferring to remain tight-lipped for a reason.
“You see, as with any potential movie deal, I don’t just want to sell the film rights but I want to make sure that the film actually gets made — for which various ‘stars’ have to align together,” he smiles.
Prod him as to which director he feels would do justice to his work, and Samit says, “This whole new crop of Bollywood directors — whether it’s Anurag Kashyap or Dibakar Banerjee or any of the others who’re making edgier movies.” Any wish-list of actors he’d like to see play the superhumans? “Well, what we need is one larger-than-life star to play the lead and one slightly smaller, thinner character, like say an Imran Khan or Ranbir Kapoor.” Nudge him on the lead, and Samit plays safe. “Oh, all the top stars have the requisite musculature,” he laughs.
Trained to be a documentary film-maker but having shifted gears to full-time writing since the last several years, Samit’s churned out fantasy novels, comics, short stories, a graphic novel (with X-Men’s Mike Carey) and is even working on some Bollywood screenplays. “I’m supposed to deliver a graphic novel by February...but that’s not going to happen,” he quips. “It’s this huge conspiracy about how Alexander left a bunch of monsters in an underground prison near Kolkata and that’s why he went back.”
In Mumbai recently as part of a mammoth book tour, ask him his thoughts on Rohinton Mistry’s Such A Long Journey being controversially discontinued from the Mumbai University syllabus, and Samit says, “Obviously as a writer I’m completely opposed to banning anything, and banning a genteel, smart, fantastic writer like Rohinton Mistry is stupid. It’s funny that they picked a writer of literary fiction, who’s not even based here... it’s the most shallow, cheap piece of publicity-mongering I’ve seen in a while.”
So what would he do if any of his books got banned? “I’d celebrate if my book got banned, ‘cause sales would just explode,” laughs Samit, wryly.
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