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Twenty-nine-year-old IIM-graduate Karan Bajaj’s debut novel Keep Off The Grass has done incredibly well, selling 25,000 copies. Taking the story one step further, the book is now being made into a film, which, the author promises, will be a desi version of the hugely successful movie The Motorcycle Diaries.
Released last year, the storyline of the book may seem familiar, even clich`E9d, at the first instance. A brilliant youngster born to immigrant parents in the US goes out in search of his roots. However, the manner in which the story is developed, how Samrat, the protagonist, ends up in prison for possessing marijuana, his drug addiction, how he meditates in the foothills of the Himalayas, has a one-night stand with a hippie in Dharamsala and meets flesh-eating Aghoree saints on the banks of Varanasi, makes for a gripping novel. No wonder his publishers HarperCollins, who have a 10,000-copies-sold mark to call a debut novel a success, are simply overwhelmed by his over 25,000-copies-sold mark. The storyline also aroused the interest of Hollywood movie makers, the Mosaic Media Group that has produced blockbusters like Batman Begins and Dark Knight. They lapped up the script in no time. To be directed by Ben Rekhi, who has directed independent Hollywood films like Waterborne and Bomb the System, the storyline has, however, been modified — surprisingly much to the pleasure of the author. "You know now when I read the book, I actually cringe at times. I think, is this what I think? It’s true that most authors hate it if their books are modified in any way — it’s their creation after all. But I am happy with the changes that have been made with the book for the script," Bajaj told IANS. "For one the campus portion of the book has been done away with and the script concentrates more on the journey of the protagonist. It will be like a desi version of the Motorcycle Diaries," he smiled. Working now as a
management consultant in the US, Bajaj graduated from the Indian
Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, in 2002. He is in India now
on a personal visit. — IANS
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While The Motorcycle
Diaries was based on the journey and memoir of 23-year-old Marxist
revolutionary Che Guevara, Bajaj’s book is about a psychedelic road
trip of a 25-year-old Yale graduate through the length and breadth of
India.