Ashwin Sanghi
Ashwin Sanghi
Ashwin Sanghiis an Indian writer in the fiction-Thriller genre. He is the author of three best-selling novels: The Rozabal Line, Chanakya's Chant and The Krishna Key. All his books have been based on historical, theological and mythological themes. He is one of India's best-selling conspiracy fiction writers and is an author of the new era of retelling Indian history or mythology in a contemporary context. Forbes India has included him in their Celebrity 100 list. His upcoming novel, The Sialkot...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth25 January 1969
CountryIndia
I am a businessman at the end of the day. I have grown up with Excel sheets. I start out writing my novel with spreadsheets and the milestones in each chapter highlighted.
What I would not like is to be ignored. I write from the heart. I don't write for me. I write for my readers.
What is divine? It is simply that which man has not been able to understand. Once you do, it loses its divinity.
I want my writing to reach people. I don't write for a market. I write from my heart, something that appeals to me. The marketing, segmenting etc., can be done by your publisher, not you.
I've always been fascinated by books. When I was young, my grandfather used to hand out a book - which would be anything from a biography to a classic - to me every week and ask me to write a piece on what I thought about it. On the other hand, my mother used to love reading thrillers and bestsellers.
It may sound very strange, but I love the freedom that writing a novel gives me. It is an unhindered experience. If I come after a bad day, I can decide that my protagonist will die on page 100 of my novel in a 350-page story.
I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselves and there are connections between the past and the present. There is the old proverb that reads, You cant know where youre going if you dont know where youve been. For me, history is like that. When you take history and combine it with myth, then you get mystery.
We don't need to dumb down our stuff. And it's important to know how far we can push readers.
Though it is very easy to do valuations, eyeballs and brand prominence surveys, you should never allow any of them to influence the balance sheet.
I don't care if my books don't sell abroad; we have a large enough market in our country. I write for Indian readers.
A myth is a lie that conceals or reveals a truth. But if it reveals even a strand of history or truth, that's what gets my adrenaline going.
I believe that every writer evolves with every successive novel. I view myself as work-in-progress.
After writing each novel, I would spend days poring over suggestions from my editor.
I was a businessman for 16 years of my life, so when I started writing, I wanted to keep my literary identity separate.