India's most prolific crime writer Hussain Zaidi talks about sharing his pages with dons at SIBF

One of the most celebrated crime writers of India, S. Hussain Zaidi, known for his books like 'Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia', 'Black Friday', 'The Mafia Queens of India' and 'Dangerous Minds' regaled the audience at the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) on Sunday evening. Widely respected for his authenticity, saturated with lots of research work, Zaidi has been instrumental in introducing the crime genre to the young Indian audience in contemporary times.

Starting his professional career as an investigative crime journalist, he has worked with many leading newspapers of India and had created a name for himself right in the very early days of his career. Talking about his journey, he said that “I was a young journalist. When I started writing about crime for Indian Express newspaper, in only two or three years of my career, I got an offer to write 'Black Friday - and then Penguin published my book. Meanwhile, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap directed the movie. So all I can say everything happened very quickly. I still don’t know how all this happened!”

Sharing the secret of writing a page-turner, he said: “The best way to approach your story is to always start from the middle, then go back and then to the end. The idea is to grip the attention of readers. You are writing to entertain the audience; so you should hold them once they start reading the book.” He added that a writer should know the beginning, the middle and end of the story. "You should also be ready to change the end if required. Don’t be rigid in your approach."

Zaidi has been at the helm of these affairs for almost 30 years. When asked to comment on his observation of Mumbai mafia kings (or dons), he said that “they were not as good as you see in the Bollywood films. I don’t agree the way in which they are glorified in our films. I completely disagree with the way Mumbai mafia kings are projected on to the screens by filmmakers.”

Citing an example, he said: "I disagree with the way John Abraham was portrayed in the 'Shootout at Wadala'". Bollywood filmmakers want their heroes to be very good and has a compulsion to portray their heroes in a good way, "but as a writer I have no such compulsion,” Zaidi said.

Replying to a question on what makes him different from other crime writers,  he said: “I have always maintained consistency in my writing and remained truthful to the factual information which I collect from many sources. I have been told that people like my work because of its authenticity — and that's why I never tried to add fiction in my stories. Any addition or substraction might damage the book."

Zaidi's books have been adapted into several films and web series, like 'Black Friday' and 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' which were highly successful and much applause from the audience. When asked to pick his favourite films which have been adapted from his books he said that “Gangubai Kathiawadi' is my favourite film. The way Sanjay Leela Bhansali took care of everything, is simply superb.” Unlike Hollywood, Bollywood has not attempted much to adapt books for films, barring a few cases. Talking about this he said: "A writer has not much control over his story once Bollywood starts making a film, unlike other countries where authors are completely involved in making the film.  Bollywood filmmakers think that the author is going to interfere in the process of direction. Once I tried to correct a mistake made by a filmmaker, when I was told indirectly to stay away from the process."

Sharing an interesting anecdote about his book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai', he said that “'Mafia Queens of Mumbai' was like an unplanned baby. I never thought of writing this book, but while I was working on another book, I discovered that there were many women characters in Mumbai mafia and they were very strong, bold, audacious and smarter than the men, though unknown. That’s how I came up with the idea of writing this book.”