“For me, Sinema started from an interesting, albeit completely unconnected, anecdote.” Vikram Singh (Author- Sinema: The Bollywood Bungle of Andy Duggal)
2 min read
Team Kitaab is in conversation with Vikram Singh, author of Sinema: The Bollywood Bungle of Andy Duggal (Published by Speaking Tiger, 2024).
Vikram Singh is a part-time filmmaker and scriptwriter, and a full-time parent and cook. He lives in Mumbai, on the edge of the mythical place called Bollywood, where he is a perennial outsider looking in. Sinema is Vikram’s debut novel.
About Sinema
Third-generation producer Anand ‘Andy’ Duggal used to be a part of the Bollywood crème de la crème—his circle, the A-listers of the film industry thanks to the legacy of his father and grandfather. But that is long past. Nowadays Andy is a walking disaster with a knack for making every bad decision possible. Drinks, drugs and dalliance are his constant companions; his wife, Joni, is filing for a divorce; and having borrowed money from almost everybody in Mumbai, Andy is perpetually in debt. His latest film—Koi Hil Gaya—might have saved him, but it is a colossal train wreck: over-budget, incoherent, and spiralling out of control, with its hero playing truant. And just when it seems that things can’t get worse, they do: Andy finds himself entangled in a devious web spun by the master manipulator Javed Supari, a ruthless mafia don.
Can Andy find a way out of the pickle he has landed himself in? Will he find redemption, or will his lifestyle be the reason for his complete downfall?
Wild—and wildly funny—Sinema will take you on a whirlwind journey of chaos, scams, madness and moments of absurd luck, even as Vikram Singh’s immense knowledge of the intricacies of Bollywood gives you an eye-popping picture of the film industry.
