Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari does not consider herself a "quintessential author" but as someone who grew up with stories, the filmmaker is happy to have made her novel debut with "Mapping Love", a love story that she has been working on for the last three years. The director, best known for critically-acclaimed films such as "Nil Battey Sannata", "Bareilly Ki Barfi" and "Panga", said she had an idea about the kind of book she wanted to write but kept postponing it.
"I started writing it three years ago. I am not a quintessential author but as a writer. You do write, but it is a different format of writing. In movies, you are writing a screenplay, you are showing ''this is what it is'' and the audience looks at it and takes something out of it. In a book, you are creating a world through words and metaphors..." Iyer Tiwari told PTI in an interview.
“I wanted ‘Mapping Love’ to be very poetic and metaphorical in nature, which I may not be able to write in a screenplay because it is feeling versus showing. Like words will evoke feelings through books whereas, in the movie, the visuals will evoke a feeling," she added.
Iyer Tiwari started her journey in the creative field with ad films before she graduated to scriptwriting and directing.
"Mapping Love", published by Rupa Publications and slated to hit the shelves on August 1, gave her an opportunity to sketch the story and characters in great detail, something that''s not possible in advertising or filmmaking.
Set in the breathtaking jungles of India, the book is described as an enthralling story of Oorja Chaturvedi, her relationship with her parents and her journey of finding love.
The 41-year-old writer-director, who usually spends her time reading if she is not working on a film, said with the book, she wanted to create a world for her readers she is "giving thousands of readers their own little world".
“Non-fiction keeps me engrossed. There are so many contemporary authors across the world who are writing varied books. Like alternate music, there are many voices we can read now. The world has become closer,” she said, counting Pico Iyer, Virginia Woolf, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Amitav Ghosh among her favourite writers.
Asked about her plans on penning the next novel, Iyer Tiwari said, “I will continue doing it as I enjoy the process of writing a novel. It takes a lot of time. So, maybe in another three years, one more book will come out.”
Meanwhile, she will soon begin shooting for her digital debut show "Faadu". The SonyLIV original series is an intense and poetic love story between two different characters.
“‘Faadu’ is a love story and it is completely different from what I have done so far. I am very excited to be working with SonyLIV, they are doing some good work. As soon as the pandemic will loosen up a bit, we will go on floors soon. Pre-production has already started on it."
The filmmaker is also working on a biographical drama film about the life story of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and his author-wife Sudha Murthy.
“For the biopic, we need to meet Mr Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy so that will take time because of this pandemic. As soon as everything is done, we will start approaching actors. The writing is not over as we need to get the final thing done together,” she said.
