Yesterday at Crossword, Kemps Corner I had a fabulous time doing a fun little Q&A Session with an old friend of mine, Rajal Pitroda (author of Starstruck – a Bollywood inspired chick-lit fiction novel) and Subhash Ghai (who much prefers the term Indian Film Industry to “Bollywood” thank you very much!) I love that Rajal’s super supportive mom and dad Sam Pitroda were beaming proudly through the event (you know who he is right?) I also thought it was very sweet that Subhash Ghai’s own ultimate filmi tear-jerker moment was when the mother realizes her sons are splitting up in Ram Lakhan *aaaw* In fact Mr. Ghai made a very good point about the magic of Indian films being that they pull at our emotional heart strings, which is the one thing we ALL have in common. He also recounted that his inspiration often comes from real people, like Amrish Puri’s character in Pardes is based on a real guy he met who lamented to the director that in finding his fortune abroad he lost is family *aaaw again*.
The novel of course is the result of several years of research Rajal spent doing behind the scenes in B-Town and knowing her affinity for writing, personal wit and turn of phrase I can’t wait to read my copy!
Spotted: Nirja Shah, Fahad Samar & Simone Singh, Poorna Jagannathan (the killer lead in Delhi Belly) and loads of friends and family in support of Rajal’s debut novel. (Full synopsis and your chance to win an autographed copy here!)
P.S. I love that I ran into a girl who’s name is actually Sapna Shah at the event (ironically also the name of the protagonist in Starstruck!) what a crazy coinkidink!
