Still, with Chetan the country's top selling English author -- his first two books totalled 1,000,000 volumes sold -- perhaps it’s time for the risotto-eating, Rushdie-quoting crowd to sit up and take notice of the 36-year-old number cruncher with an IIT degree in engineering. And though he can be a tad self-deprecating -- "I know my work is not so good" -- he takes offence when he's categorically written off as a cultural phenomenon, a mere flash in the pan to be forgotten tomorrow.
"I'm a flash in the pan? A flash in the pan that has lasted four years, with another book lined up, with three movies set to release in the next two-three years? There are lots of flashes in this pan, buddy. You want to compare me to Bollywood? That's fine; the whole country watches Bollywood," he points out. "But if you are saying it in a derogatory manner, what exactly do you mean? Are you saying the whole country doesn't have taste? Are you saying your publication, who you're writing for, the whole readership doesn't have taste?"
This link to Bollywood, with all its blockbusters and masala, seems rather a point of pride with Bhagat. Recently, he was given the opportunity to write the script for Hello, the Bollywood adaptation of his One Night@The Call Centre, an experience he enjoyed immensely, and intends to pursue again in the future.
"I've grown up on the big screen. All Indians watch movies," he insists. "Even my three-year-old kids, if I tell them a story, with no climax in the end and without fighting, they get very disappointed. They're like, 'Daddy, that is not a story.' When you go to an Indian restaurant, they give you lemons, onions and chillies, a whole plate. They don't have nutritional value. What are they there for? Intensity. Flavour. Indians love that. That's how we are. Are you (critics) going to judge us? If you are such a refined man, what are you doing in this country? Go leave. I don't want to deal with you."
But whether or not he likes it, Bhagat must again deal with critics, with interviews, and with questions regarding his work's merit. He's just a few days away from the launch of his third book, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, and in the middle of a media storm with a choc-o-bloc schedule.
"It can take over your life and burn you out if you don't plan properly," he offers. So while his wife Anusha battles with the three-year-old twins Shyam and Ishaan, Bhagat sits in the drawing room of their flat in upmarket Mumbai, and discusses the impending release, just one of several interviews he's conducted from this very spot.
"We're launching in a different format," he says. "We won't be at a five star hotel, like Shobhaa De. We're launching at Big Bazaar; it's very middle class, more in line with my audience. People say to me, 'Chetan, what are you doing? Why are you launching in Big Bazaar? It's so middle class. It's so uncool.' But to me, it's the real India. It's very cool."
This idea of the 'real India' seems to grip Bhagat, and he won't stop his exploration until he's discovered it. "India is not just big metros; it's the big metros plus all the small cities and towns that is, by definition, India. India lives and breathes everywhere throughout the country. If we have to make India rich, we have to make those areas rich. Making four cities rich will not make India rich. There's a lot of aspirations there (in small cities and towns), a lot of ambition there. So, if you want to understand India, you have to understand those towns."
He proudly reveals that 70 percent of his fan mail has come from the small cities, but laments that, given his success, it's becoming harder and harder to keep his finger on the pulse of today's youth. That, in part, explains his desire to visit and write about remote, off-the-map places throughout the country. "In the book, there's this line where we call the smaller city the real India. That makes the big cities the fake India, right?"
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