by  B.L.Gautam

B.L.Gautam,who hails from Mahendragadh’s Sihor village (Harayana). He arrived in Mumbai to begin his career working as a Customs Officer and retired with a VRS. In custom he worked 20 years from those 17 years he worked in custom’s intelligent departments. But his love of writing often took him to Prithvi Theater. After retiring, he took up the position of Vice president in Zee TV and went on to become the director. He produced movie ‘Khosl ka Bhosla,’for Zee TV, which Zee telefilms did not released nearly 3 years. Then he went on to become COO of B4U. During the movie Rang De basanti he met Ronnie Screewvala and he was appointed senior vice president UTV. In UTV, he requested to Ronnie to release ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ it good film than UTV   released “Khosla Ka Ghosla,’ which became a hot. His next venture as a producer for UTV was ‘A Wednesday,’ featuring Anupam Kher and Nasir. He was criticized for the cast but the movie was a hit. Currently he is the Director of Mumbai Mantra, the media arm of Mahindra & Mahindra Group.

Continuing with his love for writing, this year he released a novel ‘Andy Leelu,’ which was published by and Indian and an American publishers. The novel saw sailed of 10,000 copies. In Maharishi Dayanand University of Rohtak’s one student doing PHD on his book Andy Leelu under Professor Jasbir Singh Huda .Since, the novel is from Haryana, there is a talk of making it as a movie.

Now, BL Gautam has finished his second book in English, ‘Mohammed a Mechanic and Mary a Maid.’ It consists of 5 stories titled Mohammed a Mechanic and Mary a Maid, Easy Savitri, Invisible Rendition, Love Story (1973 – 99) and Fool’ Promise, in addition to theme story.

Speaking about his novels BL Gautam says “I write stories which revolve around events around me. I use a bit of fiction to finish the story. I focus on depicting village, Indian culture and society.”

Both novels revolve around villages. On why it is not written in Hindi, Gautam says “English has a wide scope. Young Indians find it fashionable to read English newspapers. You can say that I am trying to reach Hindi literature to common man. In next year, the books will be published in Hindi too…”

Speaking about his experience of working in TV channels like Zee TV, B4U & UTV Gautam says “In TV Channels, there is no respect for talent. It is all about office politics. You don’t have to work hard, just show that you are working hard.”

Talking about his novels to be translated into movies, B.L.Gautam says “My novel is reaching people. If they like it then can be made as movies, the stories have ups and downs of the characters, which always do something drastic, which is not seen in Hindi literature. The inner voice is the focus in the Hindi literature, which cannot be shown on screen. I am in talks with people for making Andy Leelu as a movie; soon you will get good news.”