One of the most popular Indian authors for young people, Durjoy Dutta met a highly excited and overwhelming number of fans at the “Student Interaction” and “Author Meet session” both held on Tuesday (November 10) at Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) taking place at the Expo Centre until November 14.One of the bestselling authors of Indian romances, 28-year-old Durjoy’s stories revolve around love, relationships and friendships. An engineer by profession, Durjoy left the 9 - 5 grind of his job to pursue his passion for writing and is now writing for movies and TV series. He is ranked as India’s third-highest selling writer by Nielsen Book scan in 2011 and is the best-selling author of nine books. In 2009, he was recognized as the young achiever by The Times of India. He was also chosen as one of the two young achievers in the field of Media and Communications by Whistling Woods International in 2011.
Durjoy spoke about how he evolved into writer from being a bit of a nerd in school and college. It was only after his first book was published, he found that his passion lies in writing. He said: “I have been reading and writing since childhood, belonging to a Bengali family I was forced to read books. Writing has been a passion, I had a blog during my college years, but when my first book “Of course I Love You” became popular, I realised could engage my readers.” Durjoy has cofounded the publishing house Grapevine India, which aims to support upcoming authors and has written a script for the popular TV series “Sadda Haqq” that tells a story of female mechanical engineer in the patriarchal Indian corporate world.
Speaking of his experience as writer for TV, Durjoy said that writing for TV and cinema is a dynamic process, whereas writing a book is static and once published it cannot be changed. “A book is a solitary thing, but when you write for TV you have to listen to the team and tell a story that leads the series and keeps the audience interested too,” he said.Interacting with students, Durjoy advised them to always have a passion. He said: “Grades are important but doing that one thing you love, can change your life. Have role models in your life and find out what they are doing and read what they did when they were your age. You are so young and have the time and opportunity to do what you want in your life.”
To the aspiring young writers in the crowd he said that to be writer they need to write every day and read great authors’ work. “When you are writing a book, try to engage your audience, if you are able to do that, you are going to be a successful author.”The author aims to write other genres like suspense thrillers and fantasy, he said: “I was unable to write these genres in the past because we only see this kind of book in the west and the believability level in my head for an Indian character like Harry Potter was low. But now I am moving beyond that block and preparing myself before convincing my readers that stories such as Indian fantasy or thriller stories can be a success too.” Durjoy’s next book is expected to be out early next year and he is also working on the script for a Bollywood movie. Speaking about his participation at SIBF Durjoy said that as he was an avid lover of books from childhood, book fairs have always been his favourites. He said “It is really exciting to meet the international Indian community here. “The SIBF is really exciting place to be as every person you meet here loves books and the fair is organised on such a large scale you feel really lucky to be a part of it,” he said.