Chetan Bhagat's latest book 'Half Girlfriend' has irked the erstwhile royal family of Dumraon, which alleged that the book portrayed them in a bad light and threatened to slap a defamation suit against the author and the publisher.
The erstwhile royals, including 88-year-old Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh and Yuvraj Chandra Vijay Singh, accused Bhagat of denigrating their family.
"Our lawyer is sending notice to the author and publisher of 'Half Girlfriend' demanding a public apology. If they do not oblige, we will be filing a defamation suit against them," Chandra Vijay Singh told PTI.
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They would also ask the writer and publisher to withdraw the book from the market, remove the name of the royal family from it and ensure that the 'mistakes' were not repeated if a film was made from the book.
Half Girlfriend is a love story between a rural boy and an urban girl penned by the author of such bestsellers as 'Five Point Someone', 'One Night @ the Call Center' and 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life'.
Singh said that Bhagat had met neither him nor his father, and neither did he take permission from them while writing the book.
The family's reaction followed protest by residents of Dumraon, an erstwhile princely state in western Bihar, since Monday. They burnt copies of the book as well as effigies of Bhagat and demanded action against him for giving their place a bad name.
"People respect my ailing father very much. They complained to us and we decided enough is enough. Let us not take any more insult," Singh, 67, added.
He alleged that in the book Bhagat had shown people of Bihar as illiterate, when it came to speaking in English, and uncouth and devoid of manners.
"This is ridiculous. Bhagat should have done more research," he remarked.
The erstwhile Dumraon state was founded by a branch of Parmar rulers of Jagdishpur (Bhojpur) and Raja Narayan Mal (1604 - 1622) was the first king.
The present Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh was anointed the king on November 13, 1949. He was also elected to the first two Lok Sabhas after Independence.
