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Movies and books continue to be the main source of entertainment for us. And Indian authors have become a tribe to reckon with. While international authors have always successfully transited from books to movies; for e.g.; JK Rowling’s ‘<keyword id="6357995" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Harry-Potter">Harry Potter</keyword> and the Philosopher’s stone’ not only sold more than a 100 million copies, but also grossed over 2 billion in revenues as a movie; we are hoping to see more Indian authors do the same. 
 
This got us thinking; what makes a book appealing for adaptation by film or TV producers? How can you tell if a book is screen-worthy? Books that are extremely popular, have a great deal of mass appeal, are intriguing and keep you captivated. 
 
And so a really good book is bait for a lot of people — on the strength of a book you're able to attract really great talent to work on its adaptation; because readers want to get closer to the characters they love. 
 We shortlisted 5 such books, who have already won the <keyword id="23919" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="crossword">Crossword</keyword> Book Award, and here goes; 
 1. The Hungry Tide by <keyword id="23798" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="amitav-ghosh">Amitav Ghosh</keyword> - The Hungry Tide is a very contemporary story of adventure and unlikely love, identity and history, set in one of the most fascinating regions on the earth. Off the easternmost coast of India, in the <keyword id="55869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bay-of-Bengal">Bay of Bengal</keyword>, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans. 
 2. Sacred Games by <keyword id="160167" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vikram-Chandra">Vikram Chandra</keyword>: The novel draws the reader deep into the life of Inspector Sartaj Singh—and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India. It is is a story of friendship and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its dark side. 
 3. Past Continuous by <keyword id="628756" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neel-Mukherjee">Neel Mukherjee</keyword>: Set in 1970s and 80s India, 90s England and in the first decade of twentieth-century Bengal, on the eve of Lord Curzon’s infamous Bengal Partition of 1905, Past Continuous is a scalding book about dislocations and alienations, about outsiders and losers, about the tenuous and unconscious intersections of lives and histories and about the consolations of storytelling. It is also a book about the impossibilities of love. 
 
4. Sea of Poppies (The Ibis Trilogy) by Amitav Ghosh: The story is set prior to the First Opium War on the banks of the holy river Ganga, and in Kolkatta. The author compares the Ganges to the Nile, the lifeline of the Egyptian civilization, attributing the provenance and growth of these civilizations to these selfless, ever-flowing bodies. He portrays the characters as poppy seeds emanating in large numbers from the field to form a sea, where every single seed is uncertain about its future. 
 5. The Bankster by <keyword id="150696" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ravi-Subramanian">Ravi Subramanian</keyword>: The uneasy calm in <keyword id="3881458" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="greater-boston-global-bank">Greater Boston Global Bank</keyword> (GB2) is shattered when a series of murders rock the façade of the compliant and conforming bank that GB2 has built up over the years. Who is to blame? Who is driving these intriguing and bone chilling murders? What is the motive behind these gruesome killings? No one has a clue. 
 
 
(This article is authored by Sonal Gandhi , Buying and merchandising- Head books at Crossword book stores)

5 bestselling Indian books that could be blockbuster movies

One look at <keyword id="2521490" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Man-Booker-2014">Man Booker 2014</keyword> finalists, and you would see it has fairly accommodated <keyword id="2521491" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="British-Writers">British writers</keyword>, with a dash of American <keyword id="6404409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="writers">writers</keyword>, with a hint of an Australian writer, and a Scottish one – just to keep the flavours from bursting out too loud. This year, <keyword id="651566" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Man-Booker">Man Booker</keyword> organisers had said once that the list was getting as ‘diverse’ as it can. 
 
While English as a language has been traversing through unknown terrains, appropriating expressions from native hinterlands as its own, gaining newer dimensions, the competition between genuine vs borrowed is getting even hotter. 
 Indian-origin <keyword id="628756" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neel-Mukherjee">Neel Mukherjee</keyword>, who is more aptly called a British citizen, has made a cut. And so has Tasmania’s Richard Flanagan. Ali Smith’s How to be both and Joshua Ferris’ To Rise Again at a Decent Hour make it to the list too. American authors Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler have been sending joy-waves through their country’s literary clubs. Diversity, did we hear? 
 
Two major publishing houses who are allies now, are responsible for five of the six publications in the shortlist. Now, now, now…that’s called an eye for talent and a surefire shot at picking writers who are certain to grab the headlines. Because, once a Booker finalist, is always a celebrated writer! 
 
In any case, this year’s finalists pack some genuine expressions in their works. English has been a language that has been some sort of a laboratory for experiment of expressions. A writer is often in search of newer expressions to transfer the sum of his experiences. 
 
Whether it is Neel Mukherjee’s family saga set in Kolkata in the 1960s, or Flangan focusing on Australian PoWs being used as forced labour on the Burma Death Railway, or Jacobson’s for his ‘J’ where flitting images of past and the progressive imagination of those phases create a dangerous concoction of schemas – English as a language has surely been reaching its potential since long. 
 
With three British writers, two Americans and an Australian to keep the scale from tipping against the intent of the Booker Committee which had said it would open doors to writers of any nationality in its over four and half decades of history. There is another perspective to the works that are being selected for the shortlist of Man Booker prize 2014. When you look at the works, they are varied and not really set in the ‘English’ identity. Some jar as works, some simply mesmerise. 
 
Opening Booker doors to English writers from other nationalities like India was to introduce more character into the works dealing with fractured consciousness till late. Will this prompt writers from other languages to turn towards English? 
 
After all, no matter how recluse a writer is; who does not want his/her works to cross the borders of his country and be accessed by millions and millions who are looking for some fresh expressions? Why not? Literature is, after all, a medium to change minds, to wipe out biases, to incite feelings that may help empathy. In the war torn borders, and the ever tense world that’s chasing some elusive happiness, a writer is an artist who can create newer spaces in the minds of the reader. 
 
Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others sounds like he has borrowed the title from a film. The experience that’s transferred from his work is close to the experience that all countries in transition from old to new are facing. It’s relevant across the geographical borders. 
 
If Mukherjee manages to win the title and take home the purse of £ 72,000, Kolkata will yet again be the final word on literature from India that could be represented in the west. It would further encourage more and more writers who could have found expressions in their mother-tongue which happens to be Bengali, to think, speak and write in English. 
 
Will Man Booker do any good to authors and winners? It’s always a double edged sword that is bound to cut both ways. An author who nurses the ambition of reaching far and beyond, high and higher, prizes like Man Booker do hold a lot of promise. 
 
It is difficult to say whether the Man Booker Foundation opened gates first to authors of different nationalities writing in English, or the authors claimed the space first and Man Booker Committee merely acknowledged the fact that literary works in English were coming mostly from people who were from different identities than the ones who were conventionally considered eligible. 
 
In an egg first or chicken, kind of situation the loss may be more than evident in the coming years. By opening gates, Man Booker may stand to gain a lot with works from different nationalities pouring into its quarters, but what would be ruined is the writers writing in their mother tongue. That would be a death blow to some native languages.

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5 bestselling Indian books that could be blockbuster movies

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Man Booker: Embracing A New Language, Casting Expressions In A Different Mold

Preetam Kaushik

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