:: Movies Plus

Chetan Bhagat set for a hat-trick

Pramita Bose

Chetan Bhagat is on the verge of scoring a cinematic hat-trick. His first two books, Five Point Someone (2004) and One Night @ The Call Centre (2005), successful by themselves, are being made into films. And now his latest, The Three Mistakes of My Life, is on the verge of joining the list.

Bhagat, named the most successful Indian author by the New York Times, explains just why it is easy to make films of his books. "My readers are not just located in the cosmopolitan metros or around the affluent areas of so-called big cities but are scattered across all regions down to the small towns, in the suburban pockets and along the outskirts," he says.

"My books are set in the ‘India of now’, dealing with the aspirations of the young, middle class Indians, written in the language they actually speak and think in," says Bhagat whose style mimics R.K. Narayan’s simple style in his classic Malgudi Days,

"We feel we are a privileged class belonging to the upmarket cities. However, the roots of the real India are set in the core of smaller towns. My characters don’t find scope to hit the discs or the pubs, plush shopping malls or the swanky hookah bars. But they have stories to reveal and share with the likeminded age-group of readers," he explains.

The Three Mistakes of My Life weaves a plot around three business, cricket and religion. It revolves around the life of a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind, who dreams of floating a business with two friends, Ish and Omi.

He opens a cricket shop, pooling in a huge investment in late 2000 but nothing comes easy. Based on real-life events, the story is set against the backdrop of the 2001 earthquake, followed by the post-Godhra carnage of February 2002 and the hardships that the trio face.

Five Point Someone is being made into a film, Idiots, by Raj Kumar Hirani of Munnabhai series. Aamir Khan is slated to play a pivotal character in the film to be produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The buzz is that Ranbir Kapoor of Saawariya and Bachna Aye Haseeno could be signed for the film, along with Kareena Kapoor as the love-interest opposite Aamir Khan’s protagonist.

One Night @ The Call Centre of course is being filmed as Hello starring Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif and others. Produced by Paul Parmar, the film also features Sharman Joshi, Sohail Khan, Gul Panag, Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora, Dalip Tahil and Suresh Menon.

Of the film, Bhagat says, "the film unfolds an esoteric, murky night when dreams will finally crumble. Or will it? For, there is that call from God." Credited with the scriptwriting for Hello from the original — that almost read as a script — Bhagat agrees that conjuring up a screenplay is tougher than composing a novel.

"To condense a 250-page book into a three-hour script is a challenging proposition. Most of the dialogues of Hello were scrawled in Hinglish," he admits. Also busy scripting another project, Bhagat declines to divulge it further. "It’s too premature to talk about it at the moment. But given the funstreak in me, it will be another superfun film. And it will be totally hatke (different) for sure."