DID I WRITE THE FIRST "BOOK"ON AMITABH BACHCHAN ?

Ali Peter John

In the eighties , Gulshan Nanda was the most popular and successful Hindi writer of pulp fiction and was known as "The Harrold Robbins of India". His novels were published by his own publishing house , Diamond Books and were sold out within minutes .He had a large number of readers , most of whom were middle class women and women working in offices who read his novels during their way to office in a train or whenever they found the opportunity or the time. He was easily one of the richest writers and had his own apartment on Pali Hill where the stars and the rich and the famous lived. He was so rich and so fond of life that He could just stop his car and say that he wanted to buy some jewellery for his wife and cross the road ,buy the jewellery and come back as if he was buying an ice cream or a cigarette. Going by the subjects he wrote about in his novels , it was certain that he would be welcomed by Hindi filmmakers and he did and within no time he was the most successful writers and gave a massive complex to all the established film writers .

People just happened to me like I always say and Gulshan Nanda also happened to me . I first met him in the office of Shakti Samanta and then in the office of Pramod Chakravorty for whom he wrote his most successful film, "Naya Zamaana ". We became friends very casually and were freinds for long .

He called me one day in nineteen eighty four and asked me to come to his house. It was the time when Amitabh Bachchan was contesting the elections from Allahabad and was pitted against the giant of a politician ,H.N.Bahuguna,a man who had never lost an election. Nanda did not waste time and asked me if I could do an illustrated book on Amitabh Bachchan in four days.He also told me that he had tried another writer in Hindi called Narendra Upadhayay and was not satisfied with his work .I did not ask him any questions and certainly did not ask him how much he would pay me. And told him that I would do it and did not even think about how I would do it in four days .I was working in "Screen" those days .

I don't know why , but I went straight to the house of my friend and colleague , Peter Martis who I knew did not like me for reasons of his own.I asked him to get me a drink and then another drink and started writing ....

And I did not stop writing for the next three days and nights I finished writing in three days and called the Book "That once -in -a - way -man.The next day I handed over what I had written to my friend , well-wisher and typist , Ramu Chari who typed out the entire manuscript within six hours in between doing all his other work. The same evening I took the manuscript to Gulshan Nanda and by midnight the manuscript was approved by Nanda without changing a line or a word and was I thrilled !

Next day I went to him again .He took out one thousand rupees from his purse and gave it to me . I had not written anything because of the money but for the love of the subject , Amitabh Bachchan.

I went to Linking Road and bought some clothes for myself and then went to my favourite bar and blew away the rest of the money till I was drunk and had forgotten all about Nanda and the book ....

"That -once- in- a- way -man" was published by Nanda's new publishing house , Diamond Comics .It was released in English and Hindi and was circulated and sold during the hectic campaign of Amitabh . I don't know if I had any hand in the grand victory of Amitabh , but even if it was a little , I would be proud to believe it ....

Nanda has walked away into that unknown place.His sons, Rahul and Himanshu are leading names in the world of publicity . They were just little boys when I wrote that" book ".

There have been several other books written about Amitabh after that , but I am sure that the "book" I wrote was the first ....

And now thirty six years later , after writing hundreds of articles and cover stories and some Collector's special issues, my first real book on Amitabh Bachchan the legend whose story I have been fortunate to be a witness to his in the press and it is tentatively titled "Munna". Am I lucky ? Time will decide and tell.