A spy thriller set during the Mahabharata

If it leaves you wondering as to what this is all about, let me tell you that’s exactly what my debut novel, Evading the Shadows is.

India. Circa 3100 B.C.

As the thirteenth year of their exile dawns, the Pandavs realise a dangerous game unfolding, with hundreds of Kaurav spies trying to hunt them down by exposing their secret identities.

Kedipal, one of the Kaurav spies, has stumbled upon a clue that could spell doom for the Pandavs. 

Duryodhan smells blood. It means a world to him; Unquestioned domination for thirteen more years. 

Pandavs though aren’t completely oblivious to the danger looming large. They know that uncovering their identities means another round of exile, as decided during the game of dice. Will the Pandavs be as lucky as they were in the past? 

Hush! Don’t read so loud. Kaurav spies are everywhere. You don’t want the Pandavs to get caught, do you? 

Showcasing a little known segment of the much-chronicled epic with taut, edge-of-the-seat narrative, the action-packed spy thriller intends to draw readers into the amazing universe called Mahabharata.

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‘Evading the Shadows’ is a fictional representation of a lesser-known event from the traditional narrative by Veda Vyasa. The idea behind it is to take a wonderful story from our backyard – in this case an event from the Mahabharata – and narrate it in a style new readers/ audience can easily relate to. Told in a thriller format, with the story moving from one scene of action to another, each chapter ends in a cliffhanger of sorts, egging readers to read further, in the process even knowing little or unknown stories of Mahabharata. By the way, did you know that Sahadev, the youngest Pandav, was the most intelligent among them, and was also a great astrologer. Little wonder Krishna called him ‘Trikaal gyaani’.

The book has managed good initial traction, especially online where it became No.1 on Amazon Bestseller list in historical fiction category and exhausting our first print run.

There are good critical response as well. Say, for example, The Times of India (NIE edition) calls it ‘Mahabharata in a new light’, while Society magazine calls it ‘a gripping read’.

You may check out the book in a bookstore or may online. I would love it if you decide on buying and eventually read the book. Here’s the link for buying online.

You can do it from a bookstore as well.

Talks are on with a film studio, a TV production house and a gaming company to maximize the reach of the story.

And, to think it started with one thought that I’ve carried in my heart and mind in over two decades of my storytelling life: ‘Stories have purpose, much more than mere entertainment.’

So, what’s new, you might. There are and have been media houses that have dabbled in stories and built their companies upon it, isn’t it? Yes. But, they have mostly been single-pronged approaches. A movie company turning stories into movies and a book publisher turning them into books. Agreed, they have also capitalised on the success with branching out into different mediums, but none started out by selecting stories with such an aim.

Having worked with various media companies like Magna (a predominantly publishing company), Prayaas Productions (TV production house), Macmillan (predominantly educational and trade books publisher), Spacetoon India (a licensing network company for cartoon characters) and Amar Chitra Katha (legendary comic book publisher) as writer, editor, creative director and CEO, I saw up close the difficulties in transition from their core business. It got me thinking.

That’s one idea that had troubled me since long. Can we start an enterprise with stories having a clear focus on multiple avenues monetisation right at the very outset? The idea gave birth to Kriscendo Media LLP.

Kriscendo Media LLP is a content creation venture, a storytelling hub that will showcase great stories from India to the world at large. As the stories will manifest through various media formats like books, TV series, films, web series and games, the stories are picked keeping this in mind: their ability to seamlessly transport from one medium to another. The first of the stories is Evading the Shadows.

Kriscendo is working on its second story and should be in a position to start rolling it out end 2016. 

We are also about to meet a few VCs to attract investment to help scale up the operation. For a smaller scale up, we have gone for crowd funding on Wishberry.  

You can become a Co-Publisher of this novel in one reprint edition. Check out the project on wishberry:

https://www.wishberry.in/campaign/evading-the-shadows/#/campaign

Apart from becoming a co-publisher, there are many rewards for backers. And, it starts at as little as Rs.51. You may also check out the video on You Tube: