Ruskin’s acting in a Bollywood movie

Upasana Mantri

Many of Ruskin Bond’s novels have been adapted into movies. The Flight of Pigeons was adapted for Shyam Benegal’s Junoon, The Blue Umbrella became Vishal Bhardwaj’s movie by the same name. And again, Vishal took the 76-year-old author’s novella, Susanna’s Seven Husbands to make it into Saat Khoon Maaf. But in this film, the author will make his debut on the silver screen too. Says Ruskin, with a child-like enthusiasm, “I have a guest role in Saat Khoon Maaf.”

Ask him about whether he is excited and Ruskin tells us, “When I was 16, I was old, and now I feel like a boy... So, yes, I am excited.” And so, the world will see this boy doing a cameo with Priyanka Chopra. And since we caught him on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival, he also told us about an incident that has endeared Jaipur to him. It so happened that a few years ago, he visited a small book shop in Jaipur to see if his book was there. “And imagine vanity of the author in me, I was surprised to see that my book kept in the bestsellers of the day category.” But he did not let go at that. “I kept my book on top of the pile so that it was visible, but the owner of the shop, who didn’t recognize me, said that nobody is buying this book so don’t keep it at the top.” He laughs as he narrates the rest of the story, “And to teach him a lesson, I bought my own book.” Did he get upset? He comes back with, “I get upset when people murder the English language. I guess I have been just lucky to make a living from what I love doing, writing.”