After four detective fictions and three films, popular novelist and screenplay writer Piyush Jha says he has now written a story about serial-killers.
"I had this huge data-base of serial killers across the world in my mind. My earlier novels were about detectives. This time I wanted to do something different. I always wanted to make a movie or write on serial-killers," he says.
Jha's latest book, "Rakshasas: India's No 1 Serial Killer" is a thrilling narrative of a serial killer's life and the unusual and challenging investigation to catch him while uncovering a chilling trail of unspeakable torment and cruelty.
The book published by Westland was launched at the recently concluded Crime Writers' Festival here.
Clearing the air about how the crime of serial killing is not solely a western phenomenon, he says, "People here think serial killers are in America, not in India. There are a whole bunch of serial killers in India. The youngest serial-killer in the world is an Indian."
The 44-year-old author says he feels that the genesis of most offenders lay in deprived livelihoods or devastating experiences, and therefore his narrative of Rakshas' life is consciously empathetic in tone.
"I had to empathize with the character to understand him better. In most of the cases you'll see they either had harrowing childhoods or have come out of broken families, " he says.
Digressing from his usual pattern of portraying women as negative characters in his plot, the filmmaker's latest hero is a woman IPS officer who carries out perilous investigations to nab the criminal.
"People have always asked me why each of my novels portray women as evil. So this time, I had this lady IPS officer solving the case," the author says.
Jha is most known for his films "Sikandar" (2009), "King
of Bollywood" and "Chalo America" and his Bestseller crime-thriller novels, "Mumbaistan," "Compass Box Killer" and "Anti-Social Network."
Whether it is writing screenplay or a novel, for Jha who dons multiple hats, telling stories is what matters most, not the medium.
"I am a story teller. My karma is to tell story. Today I am telling it on paper, tomorrow I'll tell it on screen," says the author who began his career as an advertising executive.
Meanwhile, his recent novel is set to be soon be adapted into a film by Jha himself.
According to the author, reality is more "barbaric" that is reflceted in fiction. On the contrary to what might many people think, we are "restrictive" in our writing, he said.
"We are reflecting reality, rather creating reality. Though let me tell you reality is more barbaric. I have a bonus section in my book which tells you about the real serial-killers in the world. Read that and know the truth yourself," he says.
