An architect by profession and a writer by passion, Uttityo Bhattacharya is an Indian writer whose debut novel Ba’az of the Bengal Lancers have taken the readers by a storm. This edgy novel has already received rave reviews. In a conversation with SriSays, Uttiyo talks about his process of creating ‘ Ba’az of the Bengal Lancers’ and his future projects.
What was the research like for Ba’az of the Bengal Lancers?
It was intense, but very enjoyable. Across the two years or so that it took me to develop the story, I accessed every piece of history that has been written about the events around 1857. I needed to know exactly what was happening in Delhi in September 1857 during the siege, and the subsequent fall of the city. On that count, I ended up piecing together, a day-by-day history of the mutiny, rebellion, insurgency.
Part of the research also put out an interesting fact. Much of the telling of the events of 1857 has either been written by the eventual victors, or has been revised in retrospective post-independence. Very little (actually, virtually none whatsoever), exists in the form of first-person accounts by the actors who lost – the rebels, mutineers, or freedom-fighters (as they have been called later).
Your novel is a confluence of history and fiction. How fascinated are you about History?
Junkie level-7. At about age nine, when I had exhausted Dad’s bootleg collection of Alistair MacLean, Jack Higgins, and all the historical romances of Dumas and Conan-Doyle, I was reading textbooks of history to get my fix. There was a point of time when I used to carry random volumes of the encyclopedia Britannica to read on my school bus.
Over time of course, I figured out that History has always been more about the ‘telling’, than what really transpired. In fact, if I had not turned out to be an architect/writer/rascal, I might have ended up being a professional historian. But, life had other plans.
How have you drawn inspiration from your personal life in creating this novel?
Well, they say that all novels are autobiographical. So in that sense, there have been traces of my personal life in here.
Look – I wanted to be a soldier, but mum did not want me to get shot up in some far-off place. I then wanted to be a historian, but Dad had engineering dreams for me. Part of our unnamed protagonists’ adolescent outrage is sourced from there (besides the fact that this book itself is my vengeance most cold to being foiled in my plans). See, I could not make history. I could not study it. So I spun yarns around it.
Anything else?
Well, in terms of brass-tack experiences. I got stabbed three years ago in an alley-fight in Mehrauli. When I was writing about what being stabbed feels like, and how cold water on a stab-wound actually burns – it comes from personal experience.
Also, much of my life at architecture school (and the legendary Maharani Bagh Hostel of the School of Planning and Architecture), reflects in the book. Like how ‘banging on the bathroom door’ can be quite romantic.
5 books which you will treasure forever?
Off the top of my head, The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, The Little Prince by Antionne de St Exupery and Omair Ahmad’s The Storyteller’s Tale.
The rest is bunched up between all of Tintin, Asterix, Jules Verne, and Conan-Doyle.
Strange now that you ask me, most of these guys are French (or francophone)
Tell us about your next project?
I wish I could. I have a problem of plenty over here. I am dabbling in too many things right now. A historical trilogy around the life of Ba’az the first of which is called ‘The Victoria Secret’
Seriously?
Yes. Why not? Nothing to do with lingerie. More about skullduggery in Empress Victoria’s court before and after the rebellion of 1857.
Then there is more. A half-written work called ‘Lion Mask’ that I need to finish. It’s based around the twelve labours of Hercules, set in an alternate Delhi, and involves guns, Djinns, and Valkyrie-like Shaak Chunnis.
Then of course, there is work I am doing right now professionally for Screen. Developing many books by other people for the likes of Netflix and Amazon, and some original screenplays about Aladdin and an enchanted Bullet 350.
I am having a hard time in general prioritizing what to write, besides putting in my hours in a full-time job.
Fascinating. Tell us more about the screen projects.
I wish I could. But I am condemned to silence because of non-disclosure agreements. If I tell you, I will have to kill you.
This interview creates a string intrigue to pick up the book NOW !