Author Interview with Writa Bhattacharjee

 

About the Author - 

Writa Bhattacharjee is an accomplished fiction author, poet, and editor who crafts immersive stories bridging everyday emotional truths and the world of imagination. Her short stories and poetry feature in multiple prestigious Indian and international magazines and anthologies. Writing as Amiya Roy, she has authored the acclaimed urban fantasy novel Ageless Feud: City of Kaali Book One.

Driven by a fascination with human quirks and cultural heritage, Writa seeks inspiration in both the strange and the mundane to turn ordinary scenes into something memorable. While she brings a wealth of professional experience as a trainer and ghostwriter to the literary world, her focus remains on building worlds that feel profoundly real and characters that drive the story forward with their unique complexities.

An insatiable reader, she devours classical and Victorian cozy mysteries, fantasy, adventure, and mytho-fiction—genres that heavily inspire her writing. Based in Pune, Writa is currently channeling her love for suspense into Reflections on Murder, a romantic cozy mystery. When not researching new ideas or supporting indie authors, she runs her petcare entrepreneurship, works as a community animal caregiver, and shares life with nine cats, two dogs, and a husband!

About the Book -

An impossible monster. Two powerful adversaries. And a curse he is dying to get rid of.

Zamindar Manik Choudhury was the vilest of men until he was cursed with a hundred lives. Now he is seeking redemption by helping people solve their paranormal problems.

Manik finds himself contracted to steal an artefact for a terrifying client. The target? Someone equally dangerous, around whom he keeps losing his head. Sometimes literally.

Juggling the surface world of 21st century Kolkata and the secret subterranean Patala Kaalikshetra of myth and legend, Manik must also beat the clock to stop an impossible monster on the hunt.

All while dealing with an over-protective mother, a snarky aunt, an assistant who can't stay out of trouble and a cat who refuses to be domesticated.

Has the cursed supernatural investigator finally bitten off more than he can chew?

Interview questions & answers - 

Q1. What inspired you to create Manik Choudhary and his unusual curse of a hundred lives? 

Manik actually sprang into my mind fully formed as a character, curse and all. This was during Durga Puja a few years back. My husband and I were driving to Khadki Kalibari and we got talking about cultural and historical things, as is very natural during festivals, especially for us who live outside of Bengal. I think we’d also recently watched the movie Ek Je Chhilo Raja, based on the Bhawal Sanyasi case. I won’t go into its details because I made a post about it some time back and that’s a rabbit hole I can disappear into for page-long discussions. Anyway, all of that suddenly put this idea in my head—what if there was a zamindar who was cursed with a hundred lives because of his sins but now solves supernatural crimes to find redemption?

Q2. Manik was once a cruel Zamindar. What led you to make this redemption in the central part of his character arc? 

Ans 2 - As I mentioned above, the character was born practically spontaneously. But then I had to figure out a few things. Like, if he’s got a hundred lives, that means he has to die a hundred deaths. That’s a curse, not a gift. But why would he be cursed? Generally, normal decent people don’t get cursed with such terrible curses. So, ok, he must have been a terrible person. But if he was a terrible person, why would he be the “hero” of the story? How would readers relate to him or even like him enough? That, obviously, meant that he needed to have changed to a level where readers would consider forgiving him his past. But that past doesn’t disappear because of that. That darkness is always waiting under the surface. So, all of that goes into creating internal conflict via his redemption arc.

 Q3. How does Manik's curse affect the way he approaches his work as a paranormal investigator? 

Ans 3 - The field he works in, paranormal investigation, is a highly risky one. It’s obviously riskier than even a normal investigative profession would be. One of the reasons he’s chosen this profession is, of course, because of his curse. He knows that no matter how bad things get, even if he gets killed, it’s not the end. In a way it becomes the thing that allows him to do this job. But it also sometimes makes him a little reckless. However, he also needs to keep in mind that anything that counts as intentional dying doesn’t change the number of deaths he still has to endure, so his attitude can swing between these thoughts.

Q4. What can you tell us about the artefact Manik is hired to steal, without giving away any spoilers? 

Ans 4 - It’s hard to say much without giving away spoilers! So let me just say it is a contextually historical artefact of great power that must not fall into the wrong hands at any cost! I think I can also say that while the artefact itself is inside the box Manik is forced to steal, the box itself is also significant in its own right.

Q5. Who is the dangerous person Manik is forced to confront and what makes their relationship so complicated? 

Ans 5 - The “dangerous person” mentioned in the blurb is Sriani Dhar, an influential collector of artefacts. She’s this mysterious figure about whom very little information is available in the mundane world and the supernatural world. When Manik first encounters her, she blows his head off. She’s very knowledgeable about the paranormal, very charismatic, and she’s always one step ahead of him. She’s also a foil to Manik in several thematic ways, but I can’t tell more without giving away spoilers. In terms of her role, she’s one of the main characters of the story and also serves as Manik’s romantic interest. More importantly, at one point, Manik wonders if she is the key to his redemption.

Q6. What inspired the creation of Patala Kaalishetra, and how important is it to the overall story? 

Ans 6 - Once I knew who Manik was and what he did, I needed the right setting for him. One of the staples of the genre of Urban Fantasy is a hidden world, which is often “underground” either literally or metaphorically. The moment I thought about that, I realized that we have a similar place in Indian mythology already. We read about Patala in our epics, in the puranas, in so many of our myths and legends. That was the starting point for Patala Kaalikshetra, which is the portion of Patala under Kolkata, Kaalikshetra being the ancient name of the city. It is quite critical to the overall story as it is one half of the setting that the series is named for—City of Kaali.

 Q7. How did you create a balance between supernatural elements and the setting of modern day Kolkata? 

Ans 7 - As I mentioned above, the setting of the series has two parts—Patala Kaalikshetra and the city of Kolkata. Both are important as Manik and others have to move between the two locations during their adventures. So, balancing the realities of present-day Kolkata with the supernatural aspects of Patala in a way that makes sense was critical. There are several things I’ve done to manage this. One thing is that we find paranormal beings living in the city guised as mundane people, like the Maya Danav whose garage Manik patronizes. Correspondingly there are places and systems in Patala that are similar to the modern world, like Peter’s pub. Then there are the rules that guide the interactions between the two realms, magitech that helps to keep the paranormal world hidden from regular people, and so on.

Q8. The story includes an over - protective mother, a snarky aunt, a troublesome assistant, and an untamed cat. What role do these characters play in Manik's journey?

Ans 8 - They are all important in Manik’s life and the series. It’s hard to give details without mentioning spoilers, but what I can say is that they are all pieces of the puzzle that Manik has to solve. They all play a role in Ageless Feud, and they will continue to be significant to Manik’s journey in the forthcoming books as well.

 Q9. The blurb hints at both horror and humor. How did you approach combining these two very different tones? 

Ans 9 - It’s actually a funny story because originally there was much less humor in it. Then my editor told me that I was funny and needed to add more humor. So, I had to find situations where the humor could shine without interfering with the suspense or serious aspects of the story. One of the places this happens is in Manik’s interactions with his mother and aunt. There’s also a fair bit of self-deprecating humor. I’ve avoided situational or slapstick or other kinds of humor that tend to reduce the impact of the more serious scenes and incidents. As for the horror, I personally don’t think there’s anything in the story that counts as horror. Supernatural, yes, but not everything that’s paranormal is necessarily horror.

Q10. At its heart, is Manik's story more about breaking a supernatural curse or finding redemption for the person he once was?    

Ans 10 - The Sadhvi who cursed Manik told him that a woman gave him the curse and a woman would be the cause of breaking it. The person he was needs redemption for more than just his treatment of women, of course, but that was a big part of his villainy that led to him being cursed. Obviously, the path he has to follow for one goal is too closely tied to the other goal for us to say that one is more important than the other. Also, there’s the question of what redemption looks like in his case? What happens when he earns that redemption? Does the curse go away if he finds redemption? Readers will have to discover these answers as the series progresses.