I love exploring antagonists’ side: Anand Neelakantan

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 22

Netflix India recently announced the launch of its two-part web series based on Baahubali sequel, Rise of Sivagami. The project that has been in the pipeline for two years is being highly anticipated given its original source, the global blockbuster Baahubali films broke many box office records.

Excited about the collaboration, Anand Neelakantan, the bestselling author, whose books sell half a million copies on more than a few occasions, talked about the larger than life presence of the OTT platforms and his passion to retell mythological stories from a different perspective.

The author had recently interacted in a web session with Amritsar audience at Majha House’s online platform about his second book in the Baahubali series – Chaturanga.

“The Baahubali franchise of films changed the way the global audience viewed the Indian films that the strong and immersive characters and larger than life production was not seen before. When SS Rajamouli approached me for a book series collaboration, I looked at the project through my own lens,” said Anand. Writing about the same characters seemed unexciting. So, he decided to tell the story of Sivagami. “She was one of the strongest characters in the films and not much was revealed about her rise to power. My first book in the Baahubali series was Rise of Sivagami, a story about a girl from ordinary background and her journey to become a queen,” he said. Rise of Sivagami received massive success commercially and critically. And Anand is confident that the web series will be able to shift that successful storytelling on the digital screens.

“OTT platforms have grown massively over the past seven years. The visual impact they are able to create is unmatched as we saw with Baahubali films.” Asked if he expects Chaturanga to be received similarly as Rise of Sivagami, Anand said he never expected the book series to be such a huge franchise altogether.

His rise as an oral storyteller to an author, who chose to tell stories of the defeated, forgotten characters from Puranic tales, Anand said that he wanted to retell these popular stories through a different perspective. “I mean how many times we have read about good winning over evil and stories of protagonists. For once, I wanted to explore the story behind antagonists, their situations.”

Right from his first book Asuras, which was about the story of Ravana and his clan, to Chaturanga, his signature storytelling has been consistent, immersive and full of surprises for the readers. He has also written a children’s book, his first one as that. “I want to experiment with different genres now. You see, when you become successful in a particular style of writing, people expect you to continue with that. I feel trapped as writer sometimes and want to write humour and thriller, maybe,” he adds.

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