Tanushree Dutta is paving the way for all of us, says Twinkle Khanna at HTLS 2018

Author and film producer Twinkle Khanna on Friday said that she believes that Tanushree Dutta is very brave in speaking up about sexual misconduct but refused to call herself a representative of the industry. “I am not a representative of the industry. I felt strongly about the issue and spoke up. Tanushree is very brave and is paving the way for all of us,” Twinkle said at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

She and author Amish were in conversation with Anuradha SenGupta, Consulting Editor, CNN-NEWS18, at the HTLS 2018, in a session on Reimagining Fiction. Speaking about what is being defined as India’s Me Too moment, Twinkle said that it is happening all across the country.

“In India, it started in publishing and academia first. There will be collateral damage and there should be. The filth will eventually get eradicated,” she said. Amish, however, pointed out that Bollywood as an industry has normalized stalking over the years and that needs to be done away with. “All of us have to be responsible,” he said.

Talking about her identity as an author, Twinkle said she is called the “top-selling woman author in India”. “For some reason, my chromosomes define me. I am one of the highest selling women authors in India and that bothers me. I have beaten almost everybody but Amish and Chetan. India’s best-selling authors have always been two men -- if it was Valmiki and Ved Vyas before, now it is these two. I guess I will have to take out a supari on them or something,” Twinkle joked.

Under her nom de plume, Mrs Funnybones, Twinkle has published a collection of her newspaper columns and won several awards, including the 2016 Crossword Book Award. The book went on to sell 100,000 copies. She released a follow-up novel, a collection of short stories titled The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, in 2016. Two years later, in 2018, she released her third novel, Pyjamas are Forgiving.

Amish, known for his Shiva Trilogy and the still-in-progress Ram Chandra Series, is one of the country’s best-selling authors, whose historical fiction novels have sold more than four million copies.

Both Twinkle and Amish’s writing has weaved in and out of fiction. Amish recently released his first non-fiction book, Immortal India. Twinkle, known for her humorous columns, has been dabbling in fiction more recently. Twinkle also turned producer with husband Akshay Kumar’s PadMan, which was based on a short story from her book, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad.