Seasoned sports journalist Gautam Bhattacharya launched his first sports novel, Wiki, today amidst much fanfare. The book, based on real life incidents was launched at the East Bengal tent, and was attended by who’s-who of the glamour and sports world, including former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, cricketer Wriddhiman Saha, actor producer Prosenjit Chatterjee, actors Rituparna Sengupta, Mimi Chakarborty, Abir Chatterjee, Arjun Chakraborty, Gargi Roy Choudhury, filmmakers Srijit Mukherji, Arindam Sil, Anindya Chatterjee and Kaushik Ganguly, singer Iman Chakraborty and other dignitaries.
Bhattacharya, who has been intensively covering sports and entertainment news for more than three decades now, has drawn inspiration from the many incidents that he has been a witness to over the years, as a journalist and also as a cricketer in early years of his life.
“It’s a novel about a struggling wicket keeper from a middle class family, who finally achieves success. We always get news of the A-league cricketers but there are so many stories in the junior cricket level that get lost. I myself played cricket at junior level but was forced to leave the game despite being a promising player, due to pressure from my parents. I have tried to tell the stories of middle class struggles in my book,”
The protagonist in Wiki is a young boy in his late teens, who eventually makes it big as a cricketer. And in his struggle to achieve success, a maverick life coach, Bijoy Dutta has been his guiding light. If sources in the film industry are to be believed, the novel’s plot is so intriguing and full of colour, that a scramble has already started among filmmakers to grab the film rights of the novel.
According to the grapevine, Wiki, will soon be made into a film, and in all probability will be directed by national award winning filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly. The film, if made, would star Ganguly’s son, Ujaan Ganguly, in the lead role with Tolly star Prosenjit Chatterjee reprising the challenging role of Bijoy Dutta.
“Yes there has been interest in the Bengali film industry about my novel, but nothing has been finalised yet,” stresses Bhattacharya.
So, what next from Bhattacharya’s stable? “I plan to write two more fictions, one on football and the other on glamour world. If I don’t get a good response from the readers, I will stop writing fictions altogether,” smiles the charming, veteran journalist.