Author Shobhan Bantwal is an award-winning author of
six novels, multicultural women's fiction with romantic elements, branded as
“Bollywood in a Book.” Alli offers a review of Shobhan’s latest book, The Reluctant Matchmaker, here. Her debut novel, The Dowry Bride, won the
Golden Leaf award in 2008, and The
Unexpected Son won the 2012
National Indie Award for Excellence. Shobhan’s short fiction has also won
honors and awards in nationwide competitions, and her articles have been
featured in The Writer Magazine, Romantic
Times, India Abroad, India Currents, and New Woman.
As a teenager growing up in the sleepy, dusty little town
of Belgaum in southwestern India, it was inevitable that I would be influenced
by Bollywood, the affectionate and slightly mocking term for Bombay Hollywood
(Bombay is now referred to as Mumbai). India churns out more movies each year
than any other country in the world. Why? Because a movie packed with action, emotion,
songs, dances, and a dramatic love story offers the perfect escape from the poverty
and despair that plague India's masses.
Movies are highly popular in India. People save money for
tickets, then stand in long lines in the blistering heat or soaking rains of
India to see their favorite heroes and heroines on the big screen. In recent
years, Bollywood movies, with their color and spice, have even charmed many American
movie-goers. Some recent examples are Bend it like Beckham, Slumdog
Millionaire, and Monsoon Wedding.
As a young adult, I was an avid reader and fan of popular
American and European fiction. I was puzzled as to why the exciting Bollywood tales
could not be adapted to books. If America could have its Harlequin and Great
Britain its Mills and Boon, why couldn’t India have its own version of romance
fiction? After all, Indian movies are basically romances, and India is the land
of the Kama Sutra, the only known ancient primer on the art of love-making.
After waiting in vain for decades for an Indian romance author
to emerge, I decided to write "Bollywood-in-a-Book" myself—at the
ripe age of fifty. By then I had made a happily married life and a successful career
for myself in the United States. I call my writing career a “menopausal
epiphany,” because it was a delightfully unexpected bonus, not unlike a
late-in-life baby. My books are women’s fiction peppered with emotion, drama,
romance, and lots of cultural detail—many of the essential elements of
Bollywood.
However, when I first started out as a starry-eyed, aspiring
writer around 2002, I had no idea how difficult it was to break into the tough
fiction market. I had naively assumed that mailing copies of my manuscript to
various publishers would stir interest in my unusual ethnic stories. Alas, I had
to face the harsh realities of acquiring a reputable literary agent, editors
and their stringent requirements, publishing houses and their many submission
rules. Back then, self-publishing had a stigma attached to it, so I was not
willing to follow that route to publication.
In my long quest for the perfect agent to represent me, I
was supremely lucky that the late Elaine Koster, a wonderful and iconic agent-publisher,
loved my unique fiction and signed me on as a client. She sold the rights to my
books to Kensington Publishing, a mid-sized New York publisher that is still
considered the largest privately owned publishing house in the world.
As a former publisher, Ms. Koster had published famous
names like Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Toni Morrison, and as an agent,
she represented noted New York Times’
bestsellers like Khaled Hosseini and Kimberla Lawson Robey. Although Ms. Koster
sadly passed away in 2010, and the agency has shut down since then, I will
always remain deeply grateful for her warm support and expert guidance.
I have had six novels published by Kensington to date,
all featuring Indian or Indian-American characters. The themes range from
hot-button social issues like dowry and female feticide in contemporary India
to sweet and romantic stories about second-generation Indian-Americans born and
raised in the United States and facing the unique challenges of straddling two
diverse cultures. My books have reached thousands of readers in North America
as well as many other parts of the world. The feedback I receive from my
readers about my rare tales that combine arranged marriage with romance and
social interest themes is indeed heartwarming for me and my family.
The
Reluctant Matchmaker, my latest novel, is a vivid blend of
contemporary Indian-American culture with an unconventional romance. When
petite Meena finds herself irresistibly attracted to her strikingly tall boss,
Prajay, a man who's determined to find a statuesque bride to complement his
remarkable height, how can Meena convince him that she is his perfect soul-mate? Is she willing to make some
sacrifices to win the giant's heart?
