Kitaab interview with Sreemoyee Piu Kundu: The Beheaded Writer–A Nation That Forgot How Writers Can Change The World

By Rheea Mukherjee

About the Author

Sreemoyee Piu Kundu made her literary debut with Faraway Music, (Hachette) in 2013. Sreemoyee’s next  book, Sita’s Curse (Hachette)– an erotic fiction, launched in May 2014 was a national best-seller, widely covered in Vogue, Times of India, Indian Express, Open Magazine, Femina, Mail Today, Mid-day and Hindustan Times, amongst other leading publications. The ten-city launch drew huge audiences and was widely covered with Sreemoyee earning the epithet, ‘Erotica Queen,’ by DNA. Sreemoyee’s third novel You’ve Got The Wrong Girl (Hachette breaks new ground as a woman writer foraying into the realm of lad lit in India, made famous internationally by writers like Nick Hornby and Matt Dunn. The book is out this August. Sreemoyee has just completed her fourth novel Cut! that’s being adapted into a play by renowned theatre director Abhilash Pillai of the National School of Drama, New Delhi, a Sanskriti Award recipient. Written like a play in ten acts, Cut! pays a moving tribute to the parallel worlds of stage and screen as seen through the chequered life and times of thespian Amitabh Kulashreshtra. Fashion, films, books, art, culture, travel, food, spirituality and people is what defines Sreemoyee. She is also a columnist on sexuality and gender issues. You can follow her Daily O blog Below The Belt on http://www.dailyo.in/user/124/sreemoyeekundu. Sreemoyee resides in New Delhi.

The Interview

Unrestrained, honest, and utterly compelling; Sreemoyee Piu Kundu discusses the role of writers, the culture of rape and the soulless publishing trends in a nation twisted by irony, patriarchy, and herd mentality.

It has always been writers who have had the scope and heart to change perceptions, expand the horizons of the mind, and question our limiting routines. As my discussion with Sreemoyee progresses, my heart sinks as I calculate the near future. We’re plunging into a world of mass marketing, hashtagging trending topics, and flouting flaky ideals. We’re racing to gather template reactions and superficial knowledge on too many topics. Where is the platform to appreciate thinking? When will we make time to contemplate our own hypocrisies and find our ability to make micro changes?

In this mesmerising interview that umbrellas and merges multiple cultural paradigms, Sreemoyee unabashedly gets to the heart of the matter, and isn’t afraid to bring her opinions up close and personal. Our collective potential for intellectual and spiritual growth might just depend on considering some of the very potent points she brings out during the course of this interview.