Chetan Bhagat … A success story:

Chetan Bhagat … A success story:

Writing is a passion and not everybody is gifted with the inclination of painting their thoughts with brushes of words on paper. However in a country with population explosion like India, expectantly there is no dearth of writers either. So like any other field, the runners on this ground too face extreme competition.

Talking of modern Indian Writers, one name that cannot be skipped is “Chetan Bhagat”. But what is the reason for his fame? Actually the answer to this question can be to the extent of controversial. Not that he writes on very uncommon topics, not that his lucidity out passes his contemporaries, then what, what are the factors in his products that attracts readers?

As far as my thought process goes (which is not too far ;-)), following are the X factors of his creations:

1.      Bhagat‘s creations have what the readers like to fantasize. Many of his books (For e.g.: Five point someone, 2 states) has the main protagonist from India’s cream educational institutes IIT, IIM etc. A huge portion of Indian educated population aspires or at one time aspired to be a part of these institutes. Hence a peek a boo into the life that these institutes offer, can be of interest.

2.      He always has a very beautiful female protagonist. All his ladies are attractive and his description increases their appeal to the mass. Sex and romance form an integral part of his narratives. Besides he is extremely descriptive of the romantic growth in the protagonists’ minds.

People can relate to his description of slowly getting attracted and then falling in love.

3.      He does not use difficult English, his novels are written in the most used words. Hence the population which might refrain from buying an English novel, fearing to encounter, what appears gibberish to them, go for Bhagat’s creation.

4.      His stories are potboilers and are great to be recreated on screen by bollywood. Transformation of his creations on celluloid gives him mass appeal. People who might not want to read, get attracted thinking they are reading the original script of their favorite movies.

5.      Lastly, what I feel is he has the stars for it. Personally I liked “Five point someone” and “2 States” the rest of his creations could not appeal to me as a reader, yet they stand apart as best sellers. Which implies that a huge portion of the population have started relating to his way of storytelling. I feel Bhagat is a great writer but as a reader I want him to write not with idea of transforming it on celluloid. At least “Revolution 2020” seemed to me as if created to be filmed.

Looking forward to reading and loving more of his creations. Because ultimately originality is what all readers want and that is what lasts.