He wrote his first novel Just Friends at the age of 17. And now, at 22, Sumrit Shahi has written his third novel Never Kiss Your Best Friend. He is one of the youngest scriptwriters in the Indian television industry and currently writing the shows, Sadda Haq and Million Dollar Girl on Channel V, India.
- Which genre draws you the most as a reader and a writer? Broadly, the genre of relationship drama. Relationships and emotions intrigue and I’m a sucker for such writings.
- Does inspiration strike you at the oddest of moments and places? I’m pretty much the coffee shop voyeur, overhearing conversations and issues being discussed, you’ll find me lurking in the smoking lounge in a club as unfiltered stories and smoke flow around. Yes, inspiration does strike me at odd places, like one night a friend of mine drunk-dialled me at 3 am and told me about how he had kissed his best friend and it was going to be all super awkward now. Instead of consoling him, I cajoled the story out of him, I had the idea for my next book.
- A fictional character close to your heart... Sutter Keely from the novel The Incredible Now. The character is so real, charming yet so painfully flawed. He’s a 17-year-old alcoholic who wants everyone around him to be happy and live in the moment even as he escapes his own battles. He’s definitely not the ideal hero but he’s so real and that’s what is important.
- Who among the pantheon of writers (past/present) would you like to have coffee with? I really want to meet this young adult writer called David Levithan. He co-writes with John Green and has a terrific sense of plot and flawed characters. Also he writes in this zone of quirky, witty, romantic comedies, which I believe is very difficult to write.
- What is your antidote for writer’s block? Just stop thinking about writing for a bit. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Go out. And then just dive back into writing again. Has worked well for me, till date. And oh, reading helps too.‘Source: The Asian Age
