It’s downright cruel. You may think that you are a celebrity author but in the film world you can be cut to size if and when required.

Popular Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat will feature as the narrator in an upcoming film Half Girlfriend based on his novel. Directed by Mohit Suri, the movie has already generated a great deal of interest in cine-goers because it has Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor opposite each other for the first time in their film careers.

For Chetan B, though, it’s not been a good experience. His role has been mercilessly edited out of the film for technical reasons. The director, before doing that, did take the writer into confidence, and if news reports are anything to go by, he did not mind it in the larger interest of the film.

Hmm … publishers, hope you’ve taken note of this.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 26th, 2017