Author ki beti author: In their blood or nepotism?

What do three of this yearrsquos new book releasesmdashLiberal Hearts Missy and Take No 2020mdashhave in common They all dwell on questions of privilege and struggle in some form or the other And ironically theyrsquore all written by firsttime authors who have very successful writers for parentsWhat could these debutant authors with their impeccable literary pedigree have to say about struggle one may ask In a cutthroat industry where lakhs of aspiring writers will never see their names in print this triorsquos famous last names made waves in publishing circles with the mere announcement of their debut It stands to reason that now that their books are out peers and readers alike will seek to judge ldquois it talent or nepotismrdquoAnuja ChauhanWe ask Mumbaiborn Raghav Rao whose novel Missy released a mere month ago if he has heard chatter about his ldquoprivilegerdquo as the son of Jaitirth ldquoJerryrdquo Rao businessman and author of The Indian Conservative and other nonfiction works ldquoSure Irsquove experienced some of that and itrsquos normal isnrsquot itrdquo says the 33yearold ldquoI donrsquot even think they are wholly wrong Irsquom a massive beneficiary of my parentsrsquo success Irsquove dramatised this same conflict the privileged versus the disadvantaged that wersquore discussing in Missy itselfrdquoHis book tells the tale of a 17yearold orphan who rejects the two choices placed before hermdasha lifetime as a servant or a nunmdashinstead fleeing to Chicago where she thrives as a businesswoman His lifersquos trajectory might not resemble Missyrsquos but the privilege of birth is something that preoccupies Rao greatlyPuneet Sikka initially started writing Take No 2020 as a script with meatier female roles that she could play PicNishad AlamldquoPerhaps because Irsquove always been selfconscious that compared to so many Irsquove had so many advantages Irsquove also been attuned to the stories of people whorsquove come through immense challengesrdquo says Rao adding ldquoOn the one hand we can agree that using privilege to further widen asymmetries is wrong But also to spurn all privilege and advantage is senselesshellip there are no easy answers or binaries As a culture itrsquos important to have conversations about nepotism and privilege Thatrsquos my intention with Missy Readers can judgerdquoIn the case of Nayantara Violet Alva daughter of wellknown fiction writer Anuja Chauhan Those Pricey Thakur Girls The Zoya Factor and television producer Niret Alva her debut novel Liberal Hearts is set in a liberal arts college not unlike the one she studied at ldquoI majored in political science at Ashoka University in Sonipat Haryana and thought it would be a very interesting place to set a fictional story You have a liberal elite hub in the middle of rural Haryana The second you step out of that bubble yoursquore suddenly in a very different world and therersquos a cultural clashrdquo says the Santa Cruz resident whose book released last monthThis is the premise of Liberal Hearts a comingofage story and college romance between student Namya who begins to question her entitlement after she meets Vir just beyond the campus walls where he sells overpriced booze to spoiled undergraduates to support his familyJerry Pinto Keshava Guha and Raghav RaoldquoI had the idea to write this story in 2017rdquo says Alva who recalls a similar eyeopening experience when she went to teach spoken English to children from the nearby village Asawarpur ldquoI noticed entirely different social dynamics at playmdasha lower caste boy was made to sit on the floor and not given a chair another child was treated awfully by people even as he struggled with his sexual orientation And none of the girls were showing up to classrdquo adds the 26yearoldDoes having an author parent give them an edge in the industry ldquoOne hundred per cent we have a leg uprdquo says Rao ldquoFirstly when you see people around you who have had their ideas enter the culture through the printed word you are more likely to believe that itrsquos possible for yourdquoldquoWe also have privilege in the leadup to publication in terms of marketing knowhow I try to leverage my dadrsquos expertise and contacts in trying to get my book out in front of readers To me this feels acceptable because we are no longer in the realm of the artistic but the commercialrdquo he addsFor Alva just growing up surrounded by books and being raised by two creative people has shaped her as a writer ldquoWhen my family goes to the movies for example the entire way back home we dissect the film down to the character arcs the climax the casting the writing Itrsquos now my instinct to always look for the bones of the story Also my mum is a masterful storyteller and reading her books has always inspired merdquo she saysBut that does not necessarily make authoring books the natural career choice for the next generation Alvarsquos day job and first love is television production In fact she started out writing Liberal Hearts as a screenplay but realised later that it worked better as a novel Rao worked in advertising in New York for five years before he decided to pursue a literary career juggling his roles as a creative writing instructor as well as fiction editor at Another Chicago MagazineMedia professional and actor Puneet Sikkarsquos Take No 2020 started out as a script for a web series when she was disappointed by how female characters were written in shows she had auditioned for ldquoI thought let me write my own rolesrdquo says Sikka who eventually turned the episodes into chapters ldquoIt was never like lsquojust because my father has written a book Irsquom going to write one toorsquordquo says the 37yearold whose father Harinder Singh Sikka is the author of the spy thriller Calling Sehmat which was later adapted to film Alia Bhattstarrer RaaziBorrowing from her own experience her novel tracks four migrant actors from different socioeconomic backgrounds as they struggle to get their big break in BollywoodWhether it was writing for a news show and then as an ad copywriter Sikka took to writing long before her father who began his career as a Navy man then moving to the corporate world and eventually books But there are invaluable lessons she picked up from his journey ldquoMy father is very diligent No matter how talented you are there is no such thing as overnight success Ten years after its initial release Calling Sehmat found success after he rereleased it in 2018 with Penguinrdquo she recallsldquoThis puts my mind at ease especially in an age when books donrsquot have a long shelf life When people in the publishing world hear my book was released in June they say I am already late for marketing Spending time and money on a big marketing push from the get go can be overwhelming for a firsttime author But I learnt from observing my father that when you pour creative energy into something you get to decide how long it stays in peoplersquos mindsrdquo Sikka addsSometimes the learning and inspiration flows in the opposite direction When her father was producing the 2015 film Nanak Shah Fakir it was her expertise as a media professional that he turned to for guidance ldquoWe are all sponges absorbing from our environment and thought processes of people we have grown up with Parents also grow with you They see what you are doing That is the dynamic between my father and merdquo she saysAre there more tangible advantages like easier access to agents and publishers perhaps Yes and noThe biggest advantage for Alva was ldquogetting connected to the top agent in the country Kanishka Gupta through a referencerdquoldquoMy mom has no connections with Penguin so I thought I would get a fair shot there Therersquos always that fear right Do they want me just because of my mom or do they have faith in my book Here it was invaluable to have Kanishka whose opinion matters enough to publishers that theyrsquod be willing to even consider your book out of thousands of drafts they get every dayrdquo she saysNayantararsquos mother author Anuja Chauhan says she and her husband never ldquoprotectedrdquo or ldquohelpedrdquo their children whether it was with homework admissions or jobs ldquoOf course we knew the nepokid accusation would come up Nayantara was very clear that she would do her own thinghelliprdquoldquoI got to read a very advanced draft of her book and was impressed enough to introduce hermdashwhich is something I have done before for many other aspiring writersmdashto an excellent agent That was it that was my entire bitrdquo adds the Bengaluru residentRaorsquos experience has been different ldquoIt his literary lineage had zero bearing on getting an agent Most ghosted me thatrsquos normal Some liked the writing but couldnrsquot identify a market for the book When my agent made an offer of representation she had no clue who my dad was nor did she care Part of why I remained in America after college part of why I chose this field was to do something on meritrdquo says the Chicago writer adding ldquoSimilarly when PRH Penguin Random House India acquired my book the acquiring editor did not know that my dad was an existing Penguin author I wanted it that way I didnrsquot want this special moment in my life to be compromisedrdquoRao contends ldquoYou cannot get a fiction manuscript accepted by an agent through familial connections and likewise with acquiring editors It must be on the strength of the manuscript alonerdquoPublishers may not pick up manuscripts merely on the basis of who the author is related to but the connection certainly doesnrsquot hurt says Keshava Guha 34 author of the 2019 novel Accidental Magic and son of renowned historian and author Ramachandra GuhaldquoPublishers often believe that it is easier to market a book by someone with a wellknown last name More broadly publishers increasingly look for writers who have a lsquoplatformrsquomdasha social media following or a reputation from another field This might work in the short term but in the long term it is very dangerous because books have to work on their own termsrdquo he says Guha who is also a political journalist like his father adds ldquoI would also say that all of this is a subset of a bigger issue namely that Englishlanguage Indian publishing is almost completely dominated by the one per centmdashuppercaste metropolitan elite Within that one per cent some are even more privileged than othersrdquoUnfortunately this also means that people are likely to give too much weightage to the parentrsquos role in shaping secondgeneration authorsrsquo careers or comparing the twoAlva is well aware that her book will probably be compared to her motherrsquos prolific work in the comingofage genre but isnrsquot intimidated ldquoI think itrsquos natural for people to compare me to my mother A lot of people love her writing so theyrsquod want to see what I am like But Irsquom very secure in the fact that she and I have very different styles Shersquos brilliant and Irsquom not even aspiring to be on her level right nowrdquo she saysGuha whose fictional debut was very different from his fatherrsquos nonfiction writing has no concern on that account Rather itrsquos the continuing questions about his dadrsquos hand in shaping his fiction career that hersquod like to address ldquoWriting fiction at least in the way I try to do it feels much closer to painting or songwriting or filmmaking than to historical scholarshiphellip I suspect that my mother graphic designer Sujata Keshavan is a much bigger influence on my being a novelist than my fathermdashboth her career in design and the fact that she is a lifelong lover of fiction When people ask me how my father shaped my choice of career I have to remind them that I have two parents and that they might be focusing on the wrong onerdquo he offersHaving a famous parent can give debutant authors more exposure and prepare them better but that too has its limits ldquoMaybe their parents can tell them what to expect from the industry and share personal experiences and so onrdquo says Chauhan ldquoAnd of course they can hope that the people who read their parentsrsquo books might give them a try But after that theyrsquore on their ownrdquoItrsquos a matter of social capital says awardwinning writer Jerry Pinto ldquoIf your father or mother is a writer they might resolutely refuse to introduce you to an agent or publisher but it still would be known that you are soandsorsquos child This is unavoidablerdquoOne canrsquot be blamed for the social capital or advantages they have grown up with he says And even in true cases of nepotism therersquos a limit to how much it can helpldquoIt can get difficult to unpick where social capital ends and nepotism begins Eventually it does seem as if talent and hard work is what separates the wheat from the chaffrdquo says Pinto ldquoHaving a famous parent might help with the first book but from there on itrsquos going to depend on whether yoursquove written a good or bad bookrdquoPrayaag Akbarmdashson of veteran journalist and prolific author MJ Akbarmdashnot only won multiple awards for his debut novel Leila 2017 but released his second book Mother India this JulyGuha meanwhile has also found recognition on a global stage with his second book The Tigerrsquos Share picked up by a British publisher and set for release next year While his first novel tracks four lonely people looking for community and connection through the Harry Potter fandom his second is a story of sibling rivalries within two families set in contemporary Delhi amid a manmade ecological collapseldquoMy father and I donrsquot share an agent or a publisher but those facts arenrsquot going to signify with anyone else All the same itrsquos important to me to know I am not simply being published or reviewed for reasons of lineage rather than achievementrdquo he saysldquoIn India Irsquove sadly come to think it is unavoidable Outside India fortunately itrsquos a different story When I met my current publisher from British publishing house John Murray it was immediately clear that he had no idea who my father was He wanted to publish The Tigerrsquos Share because he liked it and for no other reason That was a moment of great relief for merdquo says Guha