August 19, 2025 • 50 mins
When carefully laid plans go up in smoke, is it fate playing its hand, or the works of a silent puppet master pulling the strings?
In this episode, engage in a candid conversation with Shikhar Goyal, an iron-and-steel entrepreneur with a creative streak that led him to write his debut novel Delhi Disco, a romantic thriller that crackles with chemistry and unease inside Delhi’s newest club, Kapital.
He opens up about the grind, the tactics that kept him motivated, the early rejections he faced, and how a pragmatic approach to pitching finally took the manuscript to publication.
The conversation moves across the plot twists and suspense along with exploring the love story, the tongue-in-cheek humor, and his process of creating characters he knows so well, even slipping in inside jokes just for kicks.
Books and Movies mentioned in the episode:
- Thursday Murder Club Series by Richard Osman
- Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
- If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
- Bloodline by Sidney Sheldon
- Club You To Death by Anuja Chauhan
- Forgotten (2017)
Upcoming Bound Retreats
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- Wanderlust Travel Writing Retreat in Chetinad | 16 - 21 September
- Whimsy Fiction Writing Retreat in Coonoor | 8 - 12 October
Learn more: https://boundindia.com/retreats/
Apply to all retreats: http://bit.ly/44TzYpY
‘Books and Beyond with Bound’ is the podcast where Tara Khandelwal and Michelle D’costa uncover how their books reflect the realities of our lives and society today. Find out what drives India’s finest authors: from personal experiences to jugaad research methods, insecurities to publishing journeys. Created by Bound, a storytelling company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social media platforms.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tara Khandelwal (00:04):
Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Books andBeyond. Today's episode is all
about secret sabotage and awhole lot of disco. But before
we dive in, take a second to hitthat follow button and rate us
on Spotify Apple podcast orwherever you listen to your
podcast, that's the best way tomake sure more book lovers like
you discover our show. Now,let's get into it. Today. We're
stepping into the chaotic,glamorous world of capital
(00:26):
Delhi's hottest nightclub, wheremusic never stops and drama
never ends. So we have SamiraKapoor, who is the club's owner,
and she's trying to revive herlate parents legacy, and nothing
is going to get in her way. Butthere's a series of unfortunate
incidents. One minute, thesprinkler system randomly goes
off, there's a fire. The next,an entitled birthday boy starts
(00:48):
harassing her. She gets splashedacross gossip films for all the
wrong reasons. There's clearlysomebody who wants her and
capital to fail. And then wehave her boyfriend, Neil, who is
a DJ, and we see sort of theirrelationship evolve and how they
team up to sort of figure what'sgoing wrong with this. And I
(01:09):
really like this book because itsort of takes you into the
ecosystem of Delhi's disconightlife, which is quite
fascinating, and it's a cozythriller. So I'm very thrilled
to have its author, ShikharGoyal, with us today. And I
actually first read this book inmanuscript form when Shikhar had
submitted it to bound forEditorial Services, and I knew
(01:29):
then that there was somethingreally fun about this book, and
it's going to do really well. SoI'm really happy to have Shikhar
here with us today. WelcomeShikhar.
Shikhar Goyal (01:42):
Hi. Tara, thank you so much for having me on
this podcast, and thank you forthat description of the book. I
mean, whenever I hear somebodytalk about the book, and they
talk about some aspects aboutthe book, like the way you
mentioned in a whole differentbreadth from what I described to
people, I am like, wow. Like,you know, like, people are
(02:03):
actually reading the book. And,you know, having their own
descriptions and their own, youknow, highlights of the book. So
that is amazing. And thank youfor having me cool. I want to
know
Tara Khandelwal (02:13):
what is, how would you describe your book?
Shikhar Goyal (02:18):
I usually start from, I usually tell people my
my go to one line. Phrase forthe book is it's a thriller. So
expect people to die, but it'snot a dark thriller. It's a
comedy thriller. So expectyourself to laugh and not feel
too, you know, heavy when peopledie, or when things go or and,
(02:42):
and all of these things. So alot of, lot of negative and bad
elements, but in a very, verylight tonality. So, yeah, so
that's my go to phrase, and I'vebeen talking about the book so
much. Sorry, no, no,
Tara Khandelwal (02:54):
yeah, I was gonna ask you about that,
because I actually found thebook quite funny, and I found
the book quite ironic. Was itmeant to have that tongue in
cheek humor, that sardonic kindof style. It almost felt like it
was a bit of a satire of, youknow, these high flying people
who run Delhi nightclubs,
Shikhar Goyal (03:13):
100% so I have been the biggest, you know,
reader of thrillers in my life,and that's a genre that I read
the most. But when it comes towriting myself, I've realized
that I cannot do something veryserious. I have to, I have to do
something which is light andfunny, because entertaining
(03:35):
readers comes at a later stage,when the manuscript is
completed, when I'm sitting withmyself, I have to, you know,
enjoy myself. So I try to sneakin jokes, I try to sneak in
puns, which I think will will befunny, and at that stage, it's
all a gamble. And so, yeah, Ijust try to have fun myself when
(03:55):
I'm writing. So that's, that'swhy the tonality is very light,
because when you, whenever youyou laugh, you just imagine that
I was having so much fun wearingit.
Tara Khandelwal (04:03):
Yeah, I can see that, and it is very light and
easy to read. Tell me oneinsider joke that you put into
this book.
Shikhar Goyal (04:12):
Okay, there are a bunch of them, but I'll tell you
about, like, a very small pun.
So there's a there's a point inthe book when Neil is talking to
Samira. So Neil is myprotagonist, a for everybody
who's not at the book. And he'scome to India to woo his ex
girlfriend, Samira back. AndSamira owns a nightclub called
(04:32):
capital, and Samira asks him,why are you here in Delhi? And
he has to come up with reasons.
And he's telling her that I'mI'm also and Neil is a DJ. Neil
says that I'm DJing at otherclubs in Delhi and so and so.
Artists are coming, and he'snaming all the artists. And he
(04:56):
takes a particular name of anartist, which is called so the
artist. Is called Pankaj, andPankaj is Lego. Is a generic
Indian name. But the way that Ihave written Pankaj is, so it's
P, U N, K, hyphen, AJ, AJ, soit's like punk and ujj. So I
kind of was thinking like, youknow, if there's, if there's a
(05:16):
DJ, if there's a cool DJ with aboring, generic name, how would
he or she try to, you know,project themselves to the world.
So I called him punk. AJ, so Idon't know, it's not that big a
joke, but at least three, fourpeople have told me that they
they paused when they when theycame across that, and they
laughed a lot. And they shouldnot have laughed that much, but
(05:39):
they laughed a lot that, and,and, yeah. So I had, like, other
names also in contention. Forexample, russik. So normally,
rustic is R, A, S, I K, but Ikind of wanted to put him as R,
a hyphen, s, I C, K, like sick,as in, like, you know, like, in
(06:01):
a cool manner, like sick. Sothat did not make the
contention, because I was, like,if I put too many similar jokes,
like, you know, people will losethe point, so just put one joke,
and don't be so greedy. So,yeah, some little, very little
thing, like a very minute thing,I think most people would not
have even recognized, but yeah,like, when somebody tells me
that they come across somethingand and they laugh. It kind of
(06:22):
makes me really happy.
Tara Khandelwal (06:23):
And I love the sort of, also the characters in
the book, you know, from Samira,who's the young woman who's
trying to revive her mother'slegacy to her mother itself,
right, Maya. And there's aProlog where you talk about how
she's really into fitness, andhow she looks really young, and
how she's a very fancy person,and it's even the
(06:45):
characterization is reallyinteresting and funny, but also
with empathy. But before we getinto the characters, I want to
know a little bit more about youand how you came to writing,
because this is not your dayjob. You are an iron and steel
entrepreneur, which is acompletely different world from
this Delhi disco that you'vesort of, you know, spoken about
(07:07):
in the book. So how did it allsort of, and this is your first
book. So how did an iron andsteel entrepreneur end up
writing a novel like Delhidisco?
Shikhar Goyal (07:18):
Oh, my God, that's almost one of the most
commonly asked questions thatI've been asked ever since the
book came out. And and I telland I for the uninitiated, I
tell everybody that where I comefrom, whether the place to come
(07:39):
from, or the work that I do, itis as far a cry from writing as
you can get. And, and, yeah, sohow does an iron and steel
entrepreneur get into writingand publish his first book? So I
went to a boarding school inMissouri, and I think I had the
(08:00):
best, best English teacher whenI was, when I was a kid,
probably 10 or 11 years old, andI so I've been a storyteller
before that, because I've alwaysbeen into films and, you know,
just being enamored by stories.
But for my writing, I think Ihave to give my teacher a lot of
credit. Her name is ma'amJuliana D'Souza, and so she used
(08:21):
to run a creative writing class,creating writing club, actually
in school and and when my momwas when my mom was coming to
drop me to school, she realizedthat I'm 11 years old, and I
have really bad handwriting,very bad English and writing,
and I still do to till this day.
(08:43):
I still do whenever I signbooks, I tell people that I
apologize for my badhandwriting. And she came across
the creative writing club on onthe kind of activities that the
school is offering. And she kindof thought that it is cursive
writing and not creativewriting, because creative
writing is something that I wehad no context about that there
(09:03):
is something like this thathappens or is is into existence,
and she's like, or she's like,You have to take this for like,
you know, two three months, gothere and improve your
handwriting, because otherwise,like, no matter what subject
you're going to study, like, ifyour handwriting is bad. You
couldn't score low marks. And,and my mom was a little like,
(09:24):
you know, particular aboutacademics and all of those
things. So it's like, finally wecan, again, probably, like, do
one or two months in ma'amJuliana's class. And little I
did not little I did not know atthat time, but it was a creative
writing class and, and it is allabout writing stories, writing
poems, and all of those youknow, Kiddush, Kiddush things
(09:46):
that you could do at that timewith with your with your time,
and till till date, I could notimprove my handwriting, but I
wrote a story or two. And Ithink that cat. Filtered into
something wonderful. Idiscovered my love for writing,
and it was wonderful, yeah, andyeah. So when I came when I came
(10:13):
back home, after my college,after my academics, everything,
I always harbored a dream forwriting a book, and you know
when you were writing, when youI didn't do any sort of
activity. You know whether youplay a sport, whether you were
whether, whether you do aparticular activity, you always
harbor a harbor an ambition thatyou want to take it to the
(10:34):
highest level possible, even ifyou don't do it ultimately. But
you always kind of have a teaseof a dream. For example, if you
play cricket in school, you kindof imagine that you know you're
going going to the districts,you're going to the States,
you're going to you're goingnational, you're going
international, playing alongsidethe biggest names in the game at
that point. So I always harboreda dream that I'm going to write
(10:57):
a book which is a nationalnationally published, next,
nationally recognized book. Andso I always harbored that
ambition. And when I came backhome, I was like, I had given
myself deadlines across my life.
When I'm 20, the book should bethere. 20 came and went. When
I'm 25 the book should be there.
(11:19):
25 came and went, and when 30was approaching, I was like,
bro, you need to sit yourselfdown, and you need to write this
book, no matter how peoplereceive it. You need to write
this book because it's a dreamthat child sugar has promised to
himself, and you cannot, youknow, do a betrayal of that. So.
(11:40):
So yeah, when I was 2728 I kindof sat myself down and I was
like, we are going to writethis. Told myself, we are going
to write this group. And nomatter how the world or how the
world receives it, no matter if,if there is a publisher for it
or not, but you have to at leastgive it a sincere effort. And
(12:00):
yeah, and yeah, I think beyondthat, I was somebody who's very
I was incredibly lucky to getpublished and get the publicity
and get the acclaim and lovethat I'm receiving. But at that
point, it was just a promise tomyself, promise to a kid, kid
version of myself. Yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (12:18):
I love the way that you motivated yourself and
you actually set a deadline andyou made it happen. That's not
something that many people areable to do. I know I've missed
so many deadlines, and I reallyliked the part, you know, I saw
in your acknowledgements,because I'm somebody who always
reads acknowledgments first, andthen you had thank to English
teacher and thanks for tellingthe story. Because I really
(12:38):
wanted to know, you know,there's always that one person
in any author's life whobelieves in them, not like the
unconditional ones, like parentsor friends would, but someone
who supports us because of ourpotential. And I think that your
teacher was probably that foryou. So yeah, you know why this
book? You know, you decided thatyou want to write a book. So how
(12:59):
did you come up with this plot,you know, about a disco? You
know, you set it in a disco.
These characters sabotagesecrets and via thriller, how
did it all come about?
Shikhar Goyal (13:10):
Oh, by this book, a very interesting question. Or
Delhi disco, first of all, aftermy right after my school, I went
to Delhi University for myundergrad, and and I lived in
Delhi for three and a halfyears, or three for undergrad,
and half for half for a job thatI could not for the life of me,
(13:33):
do over there. But yeah, I wasthere, and Delhi is the place
where I kind of discoveredfreedom, and was there, was was
there, when I was discoveringmyself in terms of life, who am
I as a person? Who am I without,you know, constructs of
(13:55):
constructs of a place, or ofteninstitution, of an institution.
So I always wanted to write abook about Delhi, because that
city is very close to my heart.
And why thrillers? I think deepdown, I am a kid who grew up,
who still, who still loveswatching Cid and the Dalat,
because these are the shows thatI grew up with. And you will, I
(14:17):
don't think you will find manyauthors talk about, like the
television shows being and beingas inspirations. But yeah,
whenever I'm consuming content,I am the biggest fan of the
template that a crime iscommitted. There is a very hard
to crack mystery, and you have adetective who comes in and who
(14:40):
solves the crime, and at theend, at the end of the story,
everything is tied down. So I'vealways been a fan of this toner,
and this toner is very easy forme to think, because it's like a
crime has been committed and youhave to solve it, and then there
has to be. End, which is verysatisfying and and when I was in
(15:00):
college, I kind of was like, Ikind of plugged it into a disco
setting, because I was like, atthe end of the day, you have to
make it interesting. You have tomake it a little offbeat. You
know, people, people are goingto read it, and they're going to
be, there's so many thrillersout there in the market, so how
(15:21):
do you how do you set yourselfapart? So I was clear on one
thing, that it cannot be a veryserious book, because when you
talk about thrillers, thrillersare normally very serious. So
it's like you have to setyourself apart. So I was like,
Okay, I need a setting where Ican put in humor. So I was like,
I cannot do a setting where, youknow, I can. I thought of a lot
(15:44):
of different other settings. AndI was like, I cannot put humor
into that kind of a setting. So,so I was kind of brainstorming
names, and Delhi disco just justcame to me. And I'm a big fan of
alliterations, you know, likethe first first letter and the
second letter of both the wordsare the same letters. So Delhi,
(16:06):
Discord, Speedy. So I was like,this kind of has an appeal, and
let's create a story around it.
And I already had a roughbeginning and ending, ending in
mind, but not A, not A properlydefined version, but, like a
rough, rough version. And I waslike, Okay, let's put it to a
Delhi disco setting. And youknow, once that seed is planted
(16:29):
in your head, and once you startentertaining that idea, and that
seed grows into something reallycool, and you start believing in
that idea. So that happened. Sobefore I actually got down to
writing this book. I dreamtabout it. I dreamt about the
characters, the settings of thejokes that I would put in, the
(16:49):
way the mystery would becracked, the different small
elements in the book. So, yeah,I kind of daydreamed a lot about
it. And the more I daydreamedabout it, I was I was convinced
that this would be a story whichwould appeal to people, and at
the same time, it would alsohave a different element that
people, at least, I have notread read in a very long time.
(17:13):
So, yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (17:14):
yeah, I like the element of the disco,
because I have not seen thateither. And talking about the
setting, you know, I've noticedthat a lot of books, and there's
a good reason why, because evenI'm fascinated with it, you
know, they capture Delhi, andthey capture this very specific
crowd, this, you know, there's avery well off people rules,
don't apply attitude. Andthere's this character in your
(17:35):
book, bhanti Gulati, you know,and he really exemplifies this,
by the way. Love the name. Hehosts a party at the disco,
which is capital, and he getsdrunk, and he crosses boundaries
with Samira, who is the ownerand who's a protagonist, and
then he has the audacity to playvictim when confronted, you
know, so I really like theanalysis of these kind of
(17:58):
people, and I think disco is aperfect place to set them,
because you have things likekitty parties. You know, you
really show a lot of things thathappen. You know, I didn't know
that kitty parties go todiscourse. You have brawls. You
have, you know, huge parties.
You for food, coming in,alcohol, you know, coming in,
people going to a bar rightbefore they even enter the club.
(18:19):
So this Delhi disco ecosystem, Ithink you've captured very
interestingly. So can you tellme a little bit more about, you
know, this ecosystem and whatactually happens in a Delhi
night clock?
Shikhar Goyal (18:38):
Thank you for describing it the way you did.
But all my, all the things thatI've written a more
observational than research andanalysis, so I kind of, I kind
of went out on a limb and putin, put in all these assumptions
and conjecture that I had aboutthis outsider impression that I
(19:01):
had about discourse, because,you know, like, and first of
all, I did not do any researchbefore writing the book about
discourse. I kind of, I was veryhell bent on completing my
manuscript and
Tara Khandelwal (19:14):
gone to a few discourse.
Shikhar Goyal (19:18):
I went to these I went to these clubs and
discourse after I kind of wrote.
I was after I, you know, wasinto 70% into my manuscript. So
I went, I went to these clubs,and I realized whenever I go in
the day, like, you know, becausein the night, you cannot get a
lot of description on the color,because the lights are very dim.
(19:42):
So it's like, Okay, let's go inthe day, and you can get a get a
better gage on what the colorsthat they what are the colors
they've used, what is the kindof alcohol they have stacked
upon on the bar? And I realizedwhen I'm going in the day, the
crowd over. There is, is largelywomen, groups of women who are
there and who are having thesmall parties and and some
(20:05):
places had like two, threesimultaneous groups of women,
and they have joined, likethree, four tables together and
made like this long table. Andthey're doing, and they're doing
these games, activities like howcmbola, or the clicking the
selfies and and they're havingsuch a good time over there,
(20:28):
they're enjoying themselves. SoI kind of started noticing a
pattern, and I realized that,okay, all of these cafes,
Disco's, nightclubs in the day,they kind of become, become a
place for for these kittyparties to happen. And I
realized that's a very goodbusiness model, because in the
(20:49):
day, you have your clientele isyour target. Clientele is
usually low. People are eithercoming for lunch meetings or
people are coming for, you know,having these, these meetups with
their friends. And so, yeah, Ithought that was very
interesting, very interesting toput that in the book. And I went
to a couple of couple of clubs,generally, not Delhi specific,
(21:13):
but generally. And whenever Iwent, I just started observing a
little more, and, and, yeah. Sothe club that that is shown over
your capital is a is a mix of alot of different clubs, not A,
not one in particular, but a lotof different clubs that some
element have taken from here,some element have taken from
(21:35):
there. So, yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (21:39):
nice. Really, I don't go to discourse much, so I
could sort of travel vicariouslythrough the book. And in any
thriller, obviously thecharacters are the most
important, right? Because youhave the protagonist, you have
the suspects, and they reallymove the story ahead. So you
have Neil, who is samira's ex,you know, who flies in from the
(22:00):
US, and he really wants to winher back. Then you have the chef
from the get go. There'ssomething really off about Him,
and He gives us serious creepyvibes. And then you give access
to his diary entries, and wereveal what shaped him, and he's
in love with sabina's mom. Andthere's more that we discover.
There's more going on than whatwe thought. So what is your
(22:20):
favorite character? You know? Isit Neil? Is it Samira? Tell Tell
me and listeners, a little bitmore about the characters in
your
Shikhar Goyal (22:29):
book. You bang on right when you've mentioned the
chef. Chef Alex is my favoritecharacter, because I think
whenever Chef Alex comes. He'ssort of a catalyst for something
to happen in the story, becausethere's never a time that he's
(22:49):
come and the stories, the storyis going on very simply. He kind
of add a lot of spice, and headds a lot of drama to drama,
and a lot of tension to to thestoryline. And whenever he comes
after a certain point, thereader knows that these guys,
(23:10):
he's here to store things up,and things cannot be normal. And
even right in the beginning,when I've introduced him, we do
not see an insider view intothe, you know, into his thought
process, until the diary entrycomes but you still get to know
that there is something unhingedabout him. So I had a very great
(23:33):
time writing the book, andespecially, especially his diary
entries. I think that's the onlypoint in the book which are
written in a first person POV.
And I normally stay away fromwriting first person POV,
because that kind of makes yourestricted. You cannot do a lot
with the plot. You only have tomention anything in the story
(23:54):
which happens with this person.
Whenever this person is notthere in the plot, you cannot
use a first person POV, but whenI wrote chef Alex's diary
entries as first person POV, andwe we travel with him in in his
past and in his recent present,I realized that I'm having a
(24:15):
very good time writing theseentries and and I took A lot of
liberty with developing him as acharacter. He has some issues
going on with his mental health,and he's trying to rectify
those. He's seeing some peoplefor that and the way he
operates. So I think he is myhe's a character that I had the
(24:39):
most fun writing him and the twobumbling policemen that I have
created, kk and Badri. I think Ihad them. I wrote them also with
a lot of fun, because initiallyas a kid, when I also mentioned.
(25:00):
Earlier as a kid, when I used toalways think about writing a
book, I always used to thinkthat the crime is going to
happen in the beginning and I'mgoing to have my detectives, or
the people who are solving thecrime coming right in the first
first few pages of the book. ButI did not do this over here
because I was trying to attemptsomething different. So my
detectives come here in thesecond half of the book. But
(25:22):
they were always supposed to bethe protagonists. In my mind,
they are the protagonists ofthose of the story. So I wrote
them, the characterization, thedepth that I have given them. I
had a very, very good timewriting them and and the
audience feedback also that Ireceived was that they wanted to
(25:43):
see more of KK and Badri, andthey wanted to see more of you
know, what is happening in theirlife, because they enjoyed these
characters so much and andlengthwise, they had a shorter,
shorter length compared To theother characters. So so I kind
of realized that when I when Iheard those feedbacks. But yeah,
(26:06):
so these three characters I hadthe most, I had the most
enjoyable time writing.
Tara Khandelwal (26:14):
Very cool.
Yeah. I also really liked thedetective characters. And I
think also in a thriller, thereveal strategy is very
important, and I think you dothat really well. So for
example, in the PROLOG, youknow, Samira, the protagonist,
Mother, is found dead, and thatis how the story really starts.
And then you know, cut to fiveyears later, where we have Neil
(26:34):
and Samira trying to get backtogether and relaunch this
nightclub and all these seriesof incidents happen. So I also
really enjoy the love story, youknow, Neil and Samira, and they
have this really fun andslightly chaotic chemistry, and
the banter is really good. So atfirst I was like, Oh, this also
is like a romantic comedy. Butthen obviously the stakes just
(26:57):
keep getting darker. So how didyou balance romance and thriller
without one taking over theother?
Shikhar Goyal (27:06):
Wow, I have not asked them this question before,
and I've been, I've been reallywanting somebody to ask me this
because, because, as I told youearlier, the very first thing,
when we started this podcast, Idescribe this book as a
thriller, where murders happenand but you but you laugh. The
tonality is LED. But also I'vesneaked in a romance. I've
(27:31):
sneaked in a like a properromance, which is which, which
is the main driving force of thebook, because without the
romance happening, I don't thinkthe plot moves the way it does,
and a lot of things would nothappen. And I am not the biggest
reader of romance. I've barelyread any romance, I think, in
(27:53):
the past few years, and so I hada very I was very conscious
about the dialogs when it comesto romance, and I had a bunch of
cousins who were my beta readersafter I finished my manuscript
to please tell me that if thisis working, or if this is not,
(28:14):
because am I overdoing, this isthe banter, the banter that I
that I wrote, between Neel AndSamira. I had a great time
writing this. And I was writingthat more from a conversational
point, you know, because whenyou talk to somebody, it's a
you, you use different wordswhen you but when you come to
writing, it's a different word,different word, like your
(28:36):
tonality of writing, the way youwrite stuff is is very
different, written English andspoken English. And what I was
trying to do was trying toinculcate normal spoken English
into written English. So I kindof lost a sense of subjectivity
that is this the correct way todo this? Is this going to be
easy for a reader to read or anddoes this come across as naive,
(29:00):
or does this come across aschildish? Or does this, is this
working or not? And so those arethe parts which were very hard
for me to even edit, because, asI say, that I did not have, I
did not I was not the best judgeabout it, and I was being very,
being extra conscious about howthis is going to come out, so I
(29:24):
did a lot of rewrites. I kind ofthere were parts where I felt
that dialog was dragging, so Ikind of cut them short and I I
added a little punchier dialogso that people would, people
would, would not think that itis going a little too slow, and
(29:44):
that happened and and most ofit, I think, was a whim that I
just I was like, okay, there arethese two characters and who've
been in love with each other atsome point, and now both of them
are not at. A level at the atthe level that they want for
each other, but, but still, theyare here with some sort of
(30:08):
previous experience with withlove, with each other, but no
nothing happening between themright now, but one of them wants
something to happen and but whatthey cannot deny is the
chemistry. So I kind ofapproached it in a way that
friends would talk to eachother, not necessarily exes or
(30:29):
lovers, but friends, bestfriends, different gendered best
friends, talking to each other,taking their case, pulling their
leg, because no matter whatdifferent expectations they have
of each other, they cannot denythe fact that they have this
sizzling chemistry that theyhave with each other.
Tara Khandelwal (30:47):
So yeah, and tell me more about who these
people are. Who is Neil, who isSamira, what drives them?
Shikhar Goyal (30:55):
Neil is somebody who Neil is somebody who wears
his heart on his sleeve. Hewasn't he was in the New York
City when Samira was there for ashort time. She was there for
some, for some course that shewas attending. And they met over
there. It was a chance meeting.
And they met when Samira isonline, hint state stood her up,
(31:17):
and she was waiting, waiting ata club. And Neil was a DJ at
that club. And they both Indiansand and you know, if you travel
abroad, when you see, when yousee, when you see somebody of
your same somebody of the samenationality, you just become
kindred spirits. And at leastthat's what I have seen in my
(31:41):
own experience. I think you you,you are easier to become friends
when you see somebody you knowwho you, who you share a culture
with. And I think that's whathappened with them. Kind of Neil
kind of sees this girl sittingby herself, and he dedicates the
song to her in the club. Andthey get talking, and even
(32:03):
though, even though she's therefor a very short time, they end
up dating and Neil. Neilproposes to her on New Year's
Eve in New York City, in TimesSquare, which is, which is,
again, a very which is supposedto be a very romantic thing, and
a lot of people do that all theycome from all around the world,
(32:24):
and they do that, either that orParis before the Eiffel Tower.
So I kind of played into thatstereotype. And and Neil, he
wears his heart on the sleeve.
As I said, they've just, they'vejust been dating for like, a few
weeks, and I would not say, evenmonths at this time, and he
(32:44):
already wants to propose to herand make her his wife. And she's
not ready for that. For her, itis a fling at that point, and
and when her course is over, shejust comes back to India and she
leaves him, or she leaves himover there. And Neil kind of
comes back, comes to India onhis first ever trip. So Neil is
(33:08):
Indian origin, but he's notIndian. He's American. And he's
born and brought up in in theUS, and he comes to India. And
because he's a DJ, he kind offinds work with other clubs in
the in the city in Delhi. Sothat Sameera does not think that
he's come here only to woo her,even though that's the main
reason. But he he cannot saythat because she's already told
(33:32):
him no once, and he does notwant to force her into anything.
And he wants to kind of make ita little organic. And he's here
and to woo her back, and he getshis gets a ring that his mother
has given him, the same ringthat his father used to propose
to his mother. So there's alittle bit of backstory and a
(33:54):
little bit of more sentimentattached to that. And Samira is
somebody who just lost hermother a couple of years ago and
her father a decade before that,and and she is this rich, social
light business woman who'slaunching her own club called
(34:15):
capital. And for her, herpriority is that she wants to
revive the club and makesomething of herself in terms of
a career and ambition, and shehas no time for love at this
point, because for her, it isvery important to come across as
somebody who's independent andsomebody who's not just, not
(34:37):
just a Nepo kid, as You wouldsay, Who's, who's, you know,
just being given her parentsmoney and she could have an easy
life. So she has this goal forherself that she wants to crack
the folks 30, under 30, and shewants to be known for her
business acumen rather than herfashion sense. And. So yes, as I
(35:00):
mentioned, love is somethingthat is completely not on her
mind. And when Neil tells herthat you know that this might be
the reason that I am here, thatI want things to come back to
the same way as they were, when,when, when you were in New York,
she tells him off, and she'svery clear about her stuff. And
(35:21):
so I think she is not a hopelessromantic, but Neil is, and
Samira is a little pragmatic.
And I think that's that's abeautiful thing, because that
plays on in the chemistry thatthey both share. Because you
have you, you have a betterstory if you have two very
different people, very differentcharacters, who have very
different sensibilities and verydifferent expectations of what
(35:44):
they want in life from eachother. So yeah, I think the both
of their different sensibilitiesplay into play into their love
stories, their their dynamic andhow the story moves forward.
Yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (36:01):
that's very well described. And I think you
know your characters really,really well. It almost feels
like you're friends with them. Ialso want to talk now about, you
know, because you're a debutauthor, and, you know, sort of,
I've sort of, like, also beenseeing your journey a lot of
authors. You know, the journeyisn't always smooth. You send
(36:22):
out work, you don't hear backfor ages. So what was your
publishing journey and whathelped you stay motivated
through that process?
Shikhar Goyal (36:30):
Oh, stay motivated. I'm going to answer
the stay motivated through theprocess. One first i If you read
my acknowledgements also, Iwrote my acknowledgments before
I started writing the book. I Imade a cover of my book. It had
(36:52):
a it had two, three peopledancing, and they have like
gunshot and knives wounds in aclub. And I wrote Delhi disco,
and I wrote Chicago below that,and I got a print out of that,
and I pasted that along with theacknowledgements, and I made a
(37:13):
post that I was going to post onInstagram the day that I break
the news to the world. So Iwrote that already, and I and I
made printouts of all of themand pasted at my study table
before I wrote a single word ofthe book. And I used to look at
them, and I used to stay somotivated, because, you know,
(37:35):
writing is is a marathon. It'snot a sprint. You have to do it
across so many days, but also atthe same point, it's a lonely
marathon. There are no otherrunners running beside you. You
cannot see people live runningbeside you. You are just there
with yourself. And so this ishow I kept myself motivated. I
used to look at these things infront of me whenever I'm having
(37:59):
a writer's block, whenever I'mnot feeling that I can write
today, I used to look at thesethings, and I used to say to
myself, that, dude, you got tomake these things a reality.
Because just imagine how cool itwill be, how wonderful it will
be when people read the storythat's been in your mind for
such a long time. So that's howI start. That's how I kept being
(38:23):
motivated all time. And yes, thejourney of a debutant author who
does not come from publishing,who does not know people, for
guidance, for support, who doesnot know authors, publishers,
agents, anybody, the journey isvery overwhelming. The journey
is, I had a very difficult timeearly on. I felt when I've
(38:47):
written my manuscript, I thoughtthat, okay, now I'm going to
send it to somebody, and withinsix months, I am going to be
published and the book is goingto be out. I had no idea. I had
zero idea how the industryworks. I had no benchmark, no
yardstick to measure it against.
And I was like, wow, you'vewritten a book, and that's all
it takes. But little did I knowthat getting a book published is
(39:11):
a different ball game altogetherfrom writing it. These are two
very different things, and youhave to do both of them. You
just writing a book is notenough. You have to get it
published. And you have to getit published in the correct way
so that it reaches the maximumnumber of people. Because I
(39:31):
think that should be theultimate aim for a book to book
to have. So early on, I was toldthat write to all the literary
agents in the country, andbecause if a literary agent
likes your book, he or she canpitch it to a publisher. And if
(39:52):
your book is is given to, if abook is on boarded to a literary
agent, I. That is as good asbeing published, because they
take care of everything. But Ikind of chased all the agents in
the country for, I think, six toseven months, and I did not get
the replies that I was expectingfrom them. And hence I was like,
(40:16):
Okay, I've spent a considerableamount of time at this point, I
should start taking things in myown hand, because what's the
worst that will happen?
Everybody will reject me, orthey won't reply to me. I can
wait another year, another yearand a half, because I have to do
(40:39):
something about it. I cannotjust keep waiting for people to
reply to me. I have to storethings up on my own. And that's
what I started doing. I startedreaching out to publishing
houses on my own. Bound has ahas a service where they provide
publishing guidance. So I kindof, I kind of went to bound
(41:04):
India also. I got my mind, gotmy submission packaged, refined,
and I went to a lot of differentpublishing houses. I used to
write to them. Please tell me.
Please tell me if my book isworthy of, you know,
representation from yourpublishing house, and I'm
willing to tweak things that youwant, and based on the replies
(41:25):
that I would get, I based on thefeedback that I used to get, I
used to alter my submissionpackage. I used to alter things
accordingly, because, you know,you are not perfect when you are
sending stuff out and people whoare rejecting your work are not
evil or then I cannot say thatthey do not understand your
(41:47):
work. It's just that thesepeople have been in the industry
for so long they know what worksand what does not work. And so I
realized that the more people Italk to, the more rejections I
get, the more feedback I will beable to receive, and the more
alterations I can do to mysubmission package, and the
better I can make it. And beforeI actually got my deal with
(42:12):
Penguin, I might have spoken to7080, maybe 100 people or
different people, editors,authors, people in publishing
houses, people who have met atbookstores, bookstores, and I
asked them, Ki or ye book,chapana, sikawa, Mirco, because
I thought that because thesepeople are selling books, they
(42:36):
might have some in towards apublishing house. And whatever
advice I got, whether it workedor not, it kind of ultimately
shaped the way the submissionpackage actually was made, and
and I made an entire marketingplan for my book. I realized, I
realized that I have to approachthis in the way of somebody as
(42:59):
somebody who's applying for ajob, or somebody who's applying,
somebody who's applying applyingat a university, you always do
not have to talk about how greatyour book is, how great you are.
You also have to tell peoplepublishing houses per se, what
is in this book for them? Youhave to tell them that this
(43:23):
book, because everything, everypublishing house, is a
corporation at the end of theday, and they're here to push a
product forward in the market.
Because all of this does willnot make sense. You know, if
your book does not sell copies,if you want to write more books
in the future, your books haveto sell, I feel, and that's
where my entrepreneur braincomes into place, because I
(43:47):
recognize that for anyenterprise, things have to sell,
like, you know, things have tobe marketed well, and they have
to sell. And so I made amarketing plan, and I jotted
down a lot of things that, youknow, we will do this. We will
do that. I'm ready to push hardfor my book on my own. I'm ready
(44:08):
to take owners and initiativeand ownership for my book and
and I wrote this really detailedplan that, you know, and I wrote
different USPS of my book thatthat I envision this being
turned into an OTT sometime, ora movie or an OTT series
sometime, and so all of thesethings will will mean that there
(44:31):
is more exposure and moremarketing push on it, on its
own, for the book. So I so themain thing that I did was I
started telling differententities that how this book is
going to help you, and when itcame to Penguin, I realized that
Penguin has already come outwith books which are which are
(44:54):
thrillers and mysteries, buthave tonalities in a very
comical sense. So penguin. Hadcome out with the Thursday Motor
Club series, and everyone in myfamily has killed someone, and
and Harper had come out withanother Johan books, which are,
which are, comedy, Thrillermysteries. And so I realized
(45:14):
that these publishing houseswould have the bandwidth to
understand what my book is, andthey would be better able to
place the book in their lineup.
So I, I contacted penguin first,and I told them that, you know,
this book is similar to whatwhat is already there in your
title, so it is not a completelyalien project. And so I think
(45:37):
all of these things ultimatelyhelped me to get published and
and I, and it seems easier saidthan done, because by the time I
got my deal, I had spent a lotof time in frustration
desperation. I had alreadystarted to explore or different
(45:58):
options I had started to exploreor Kindle, Direct Publishing,
which is big in the West, but Idon't know if it has kicked off
the way it has kicked off therein India yet. So I was keen on
exploring that and and I kind oftold myself that that I have
another year to probably reachout to all the publishing houses
(46:21):
in India and to pursue them. Andif that does not work out,
probably Kindle, DirectPublishing would have been the
way to go. And, yeah, but Ithink I was incredibly lucky to
have,
Tara Khandelwal (46:38):
yeah, I really liked the way that you
approached it, you know? BecauseI also always tell people that
approach it as a product, youknow, I think you want to.
Unknown (46:50):
Can you hear
Shikhar Goyal (46:53):
me? I can hear you now. Oh, could you hear me
before this lag
Tara Khandelwal (46:58):
for like five seconds? Ah, okay, okay, um, so
maybe I just like move on to therapid fire round now, because I
don't want the internet
Shikhar Goyal (47:06):
to this thing.
Wow. Okay,
Tara Khandelwal (47:10):
okay, so thanks for that story. And I think I
really liked, you know, the waythat your entrepreneurship
background has come in, becausethat's something that I also
tell people that approach thebook as a prod, broad product,
and you're very methodical aboutit, and love the fact that you
had your goal so set already,that you were working towards
it, so I can already see howgoal oriented you are and able
(47:32):
to break things down. Okay, sonow it's time for a rapid fire
round where you have to answermy questions in one word or one
sentence only. Okay. Okay. IfDelhi disco was turned into a
movie, who would you cast asSamira, Neil and Alex?
Shikhar Goyal (47:49):
Samira would be Alaya F I'll do you a better her
mom, Maya Kapoor, would be Poojababy, because it real life. Mom
and daughter deals. Neil wouldbe sidhanth Chaturvedi, and Alex
is a character that I havewritten for Vinay Bartok. I when
(48:09):
I was writing it, I knew thatI'm writing it for Vinay Bartok,
and he's the only actor that Ihave envisioned playing Alex.
Tara Khandelwal (48:17):
Oh, so you really thought about it. Is
there a talk about this beingturned into
Shikhar Goyal (48:22):
a movie, not at this stage. I'm trying to pursue
that. I would be the happiestperson on the planet, if that,
if that happens. But yes, I'mtrying to pursue that.
Tara Khandelwal (48:33):
Yeah. I think it would be really good for a
movie, especially with the wholedisco stuff. Okay, yeah, what
is, what is your go to thrillerbook?
Shikhar Goyal (48:43):
My go to thriller book, I think it's any Sydney
Sheldon book, if tomorrow comes,I would say if tomorrow comes a
bloodline, yeah.
Tara Khandelwal (48:53):
And what's your go to thriller movie?
Shikhar Goyal (48:56):
Thriller movie?
Oh my god. I saw this amazingKorean movie on Netflix the
other month. It's calledforgotten. It's currently
available on the Indian Netflix.
I without revealing too much ofthe plot, I'll just say that
there is a boy who thinks thatwho sees his brother being
(49:16):
abducted, and his brother, afterabduction, comes back to home
after a couple of weeks, andthis man realized that it is not
his brother but somebody else,some an in impersonator, who's
trying to take the place of hisbrother. And the story how it
unfolds, it's completely mindboggling. 100% recommended,
(49:38):
forgotten on Netflix India.
Tara Khandelwal (49:41):
Oh, my god, yeah, definitely. I think I
would have watched it if you hadto choose one book to take with
you on a 24 hour flight. Whatwould it
Shikhar Goyal (49:51):
be? Or any book from Anuja Chauhan, ma'am,
Glossary of books I have notread her recent. Two books which
are, which are mysterythrillers. So probably one of
those. There's a book calledclub you to death, which was
recently made into a Netflixmovie. Also not seen the movie
either, but she's my favoriteauthor. So her book club due to
(50:14):
death, because I'm really,really want to read that book.
Yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (50:17):
actually, I was going to mention your nujaa
Chauhan, because I see thewriting also, yeah, so that's
wonderful to know what's nextfor you. What are you working on
next?
Shikhar Goyal (50:28):
I am working on another book which is which has
a similar tonality. It is acomedy thriller, and without
revealing too much about theplot, it is about a fraudulent
Instagram influencer. And, yeah,it is very current. It is very
(50:49):
Gen Z and Millennial. And I amhaving such a great time writing
it, and ever since I gotpublished, and I'm receiving all
sorts of feedback and critique,I know I know what I know the
direction that I have to take,and I'm just having a great time
(51:10):
writing it. And hopefully, hope,hopefully, sooner than later, we
see that
Tara Khandelwal (51:17):
that sounds like a really fun topic and also
very relevant and not donebefore. Love to read that as
well. And is that also going tobe published by Penguin, or
you've not started
Shikhar Goyal (51:27):
that process yet?
I It's too premature to say thatthere is no deal or anything,
but too premature to say that.
But I hope it happens throughthem. Yeah, because I'm obliged
to show it to them also. And,yeah, because I've had a great
time, the best time at Penguinand everything has been so
(51:48):
smooth, and I could not imagineanybody else. I could not
imagine coming out with a bookin my life with anybody else.
Tara Khandelwal (51:55):
Oh, wow. It's a lovely endorsement. Okay, yeah,
yeah. It's been so greatchatting with you, Shikhar and
to all our listeners, if you'relooking for a thriller that has
a pulse on Delhi party culture,layered characters and a plot
twist, you will not see coming.
Pick up Delhi risk. And hey, ifyou're a friend who's a thriller
junkie, send them this episode.
(52:18):
Don't forget to rate review usand hit Spotify Apple podcast,
or wherever you tune in. You canalso follow us on Instagram and
bound India to be updated andall things bound. Thank you so
much. Hikar, this is really fun.
Shikhar Goyal (52:30):
Thank you so much. Tara, I had a blast
talking about my book andtalking about my journey in
general. And it was awesome. Itwas my first podcast I had a
great time. So glad. Yeah.
Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Books andBeyond. Today's episode is all
about secret sabotage and awhole lot of disco. But before
we dive in, take a second to hitthat follow button and rate us
on Spotify Apple podcast orwherever you listen to your
podcast, that's the best way tomake sure more book lovers like
you discover our show. Now,let's get into it. Today. We're
stepping into the chaotic,glamorous world of capital
(00:26):
Delhi's hottest nightclub, wheremusic never stops and drama
never ends. So we have SamiraKapoor, who is the club's owner,
and she's trying to revive herlate parents legacy, and nothing
is going to get in her way. Butthere's a series of unfortunate
incidents. One minute, thesprinkler system randomly goes
off, there's a fire. The next,an entitled birthday boy starts
(00:48):
harassing her. She gets splashedacross gossip films for all the
wrong reasons. There's clearlysomebody who wants her and
capital to fail. And then wehave her boyfriend, Neil, who is
a DJ, and we see sort of theirrelationship evolve and how they
team up to sort of figure what'sgoing wrong with this. And I
(01:09):
really like this book because itsort of takes you into the
ecosystem of Delhi's disconightlife, which is quite
fascinating, and it's a cozythriller. So I'm very thrilled
to have its author, ShikharGoyal, with us today. And I
actually first read this book inmanuscript form when Shikhar had
submitted it to bound forEditorial Services, and I knew
(01:29):
then that there was somethingreally fun about this book, and
it's going to do really well. SoI'm really happy to have Shikhar
here with us today. WelcomeShikhar.
Shikhar Goyal (01:42):
Hi. Tara, thank you so much for having me on
this podcast, and thank you forthat description of the book. I
mean, whenever I hear somebodytalk about the book, and they
talk about some aspects aboutthe book, like the way you
mentioned in a whole differentbreadth from what I described to
people, I am like, wow. Like,you know, like, people are
(02:03):
actually reading the book. And,you know, having their own
descriptions and their own, youknow, highlights of the book. So
that is amazing. And thank youfor having me cool. I want to
know
Tara Khandelwal (02:13):
what is, how would you describe your book?
Shikhar Goyal (02:18):
I usually start from, I usually tell people my
my go to one line. Phrase forthe book is it's a thriller. So
expect people to die, but it'snot a dark thriller. It's a
comedy thriller. So expectyourself to laugh and not feel
too, you know, heavy when peopledie, or when things go or and,
(02:42):
and all of these things. So alot of, lot of negative and bad
elements, but in a very, verylight tonality. So, yeah, so
that's my go to phrase, and I'vebeen talking about the book so
much. Sorry, no, no,
Tara Khandelwal (02:54):
yeah, I was gonna ask you about that,
because I actually found thebook quite funny, and I found
the book quite ironic. Was itmeant to have that tongue in
cheek humor, that sardonic kindof style. It almost felt like it
was a bit of a satire of, youknow, these high flying people
who run Delhi nightclubs,
Shikhar Goyal (03:13):
100% so I have been the biggest, you know,
reader of thrillers in my life,and that's a genre that I read
the most. But when it comes towriting myself, I've realized
that I cannot do something veryserious. I have to, I have to do
something which is light andfunny, because entertaining
(03:35):
readers comes at a later stage,when the manuscript is
completed, when I'm sitting withmyself, I have to, you know,
enjoy myself. So I try to sneakin jokes, I try to sneak in
puns, which I think will will befunny, and at that stage, it's
all a gamble. And so, yeah, Ijust try to have fun myself when
(03:55):
I'm writing. So that's, that'swhy the tonality is very light,
because when you, whenever youyou laugh, you just imagine that
I was having so much fun wearingit.
Tara Khandelwal (04:03):
Yeah, I can see that, and it is very light and
easy to read. Tell me oneinsider joke that you put into
this book.
Shikhar Goyal (04:12):
Okay, there are a bunch of them, but I'll tell you
about, like, a very small pun.
So there's a there's a point inthe book when Neil is talking to
Samira. So Neil is myprotagonist, a for everybody
who's not at the book. And he'scome to India to woo his ex
girlfriend, Samira back. AndSamira owns a nightclub called
(04:32):
capital, and Samira asks him,why are you here in Delhi? And
he has to come up with reasons.
And he's telling her that I'mI'm also and Neil is a DJ. Neil
says that I'm DJing at otherclubs in Delhi and so and so.
Artists are coming, and he'snaming all the artists. And he
(04:56):
takes a particular name of anartist, which is called so the
artist. Is called Pankaj, andPankaj is Lego. Is a generic
Indian name. But the way that Ihave written Pankaj is, so it's
P, U N, K, hyphen, AJ, AJ, soit's like punk and ujj. So I
kind of was thinking like, youknow, if there's, if there's a
(05:16):
DJ, if there's a cool DJ with aboring, generic name, how would
he or she try to, you know,project themselves to the world.
So I called him punk. AJ, so Idon't know, it's not that big a
joke, but at least three, fourpeople have told me that they
they paused when they when theycame across that, and they
laughed a lot. And they shouldnot have laughed that much, but
(05:39):
they laughed a lot that, and,and, yeah. So I had, like, other
names also in contention. Forexample, russik. So normally,
rustic is R, A, S, I K, but Ikind of wanted to put him as R,
a hyphen, s, I C, K, like sick,as in, like, you know, like, in
(06:01):
a cool manner, like sick. Sothat did not make the
contention, because I was, like,if I put too many similar jokes,
like, you know, people will losethe point, so just put one joke,
and don't be so greedy. So,yeah, some little, very little
thing, like a very minute thing,I think most people would not
have even recognized, but yeah,like, when somebody tells me
that they come across somethingand and they laugh. It kind of
(06:22):
makes me really happy.
Tara Khandelwal (06:23):
And I love the sort of, also the characters in
the book, you know, from Samira,who's the young woman who's
trying to revive her mother'slegacy to her mother itself,
right, Maya. And there's aProlog where you talk about how
she's really into fitness, andhow she looks really young, and
how she's a very fancy person,and it's even the
(06:45):
characterization is reallyinteresting and funny, but also
with empathy. But before we getinto the characters, I want to
know a little bit more about youand how you came to writing,
because this is not your dayjob. You are an iron and steel
entrepreneur, which is acompletely different world from
this Delhi disco that you'vesort of, you know, spoken about
(07:07):
in the book. So how did it allsort of, and this is your first
book. So how did an iron andsteel entrepreneur end up
writing a novel like Delhidisco?
Shikhar Goyal (07:18):
Oh, my God, that's almost one of the most
commonly asked questions thatI've been asked ever since the
book came out. And and I telland I for the uninitiated, I
tell everybody that where I comefrom, whether the place to come
(07:39):
from, or the work that I do, itis as far a cry from writing as
you can get. And, and, yeah, sohow does an iron and steel
entrepreneur get into writingand publish his first book? So I
went to a boarding school inMissouri, and I think I had the
(08:00):
best, best English teacher whenI was, when I was a kid,
probably 10 or 11 years old, andI so I've been a storyteller
before that, because I've alwaysbeen into films and, you know,
just being enamored by stories.
But for my writing, I think Ihave to give my teacher a lot of
credit. Her name is ma'amJuliana D'Souza, and so she used
(08:21):
to run a creative writing class,creating writing club, actually
in school and and when my momwas when my mom was coming to
drop me to school, she realizedthat I'm 11 years old, and I
have really bad handwriting,very bad English and writing,
and I still do to till this day.
(08:43):
I still do whenever I signbooks, I tell people that I
apologize for my badhandwriting. And she came across
the creative writing club on onthe kind of activities that the
school is offering. And she kindof thought that it is cursive
writing and not creativewriting, because creative
writing is something that I wehad no context about that there
(09:03):
is something like this thathappens or is is into existence,
and she's like, or she's like,You have to take this for like,
you know, two three months, gothere and improve your
handwriting, because otherwise,like, no matter what subject
you're going to study, like, ifyour handwriting is bad. You
couldn't score low marks. And,and my mom was a little like,
(09:24):
you know, particular aboutacademics and all of those
things. So it's like, finally wecan, again, probably, like, do
one or two months in ma'amJuliana's class. And little I
did not little I did not know atthat time, but it was a creative
writing class and, and it is allabout writing stories, writing
poems, and all of those youknow, Kiddush, Kiddush things
(09:46):
that you could do at that timewith with your with your time,
and till till date, I could notimprove my handwriting, but I
wrote a story or two. And Ithink that cat. Filtered into
something wonderful. Idiscovered my love for writing,
and it was wonderful, yeah, andyeah. So when I came when I came
(10:13):
back home, after my college,after my academics, everything,
I always harbored a dream forwriting a book, and you know
when you were writing, when youI didn't do any sort of
activity. You know whether youplay a sport, whether you were
whether, whether you do aparticular activity, you always
harbor a harbor an ambition thatyou want to take it to the
(10:34):
highest level possible, even ifyou don't do it ultimately. But
you always kind of have a teaseof a dream. For example, if you
play cricket in school, you kindof imagine that you know you're
going going to the districts,you're going to the States,
you're going to you're goingnational, you're going
international, playing alongsidethe biggest names in the game at
that point. So I always harboreda dream that I'm going to write
(10:57):
a book which is a nationalnationally published, next,
nationally recognized book. Andso I always harbored that
ambition. And when I came backhome, I was like, I had given
myself deadlines across my life.
When I'm 20, the book should bethere. 20 came and went. When
I'm 25 the book should be there.
(11:19):
25 came and went, and when 30was approaching, I was like,
bro, you need to sit yourselfdown, and you need to write this
book, no matter how peoplereceive it. You need to write
this book because it's a dreamthat child sugar has promised to
himself, and you cannot, youknow, do a betrayal of that. So.
(11:40):
So yeah, when I was 2728 I kindof sat myself down and I was
like, we are going to writethis. Told myself, we are going
to write this group. And nomatter how the world or how the
world receives it, no matter if,if there is a publisher for it
or not, but you have to at leastgive it a sincere effort. And
(12:00):
yeah, and yeah, I think beyondthat, I was somebody who's very
I was incredibly lucky to getpublished and get the publicity
and get the acclaim and lovethat I'm receiving. But at that
point, it was just a promise tomyself, promise to a kid, kid
version of myself. Yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (12:18):
I love the way that you motivated yourself and
you actually set a deadline andyou made it happen. That's not
something that many people areable to do. I know I've missed
so many deadlines, and I reallyliked the part, you know, I saw
in your acknowledgements,because I'm somebody who always
reads acknowledgments first, andthen you had thank to English
teacher and thanks for tellingthe story. Because I really
(12:38):
wanted to know, you know,there's always that one person
in any author's life whobelieves in them, not like the
unconditional ones, like parentsor friends would, but someone
who supports us because of ourpotential. And I think that your
teacher was probably that foryou. So yeah, you know why this
book? You know, you decided thatyou want to write a book. So how
(12:59):
did you come up with this plot,you know, about a disco? You
know, you set it in a disco.
These characters sabotagesecrets and via thriller, how
did it all come about?
Shikhar Goyal (13:10):
Oh, by this book, a very interesting question. Or
Delhi disco, first of all, aftermy right after my school, I went
to Delhi University for myundergrad, and and I lived in
Delhi for three and a halfyears, or three for undergrad,
and half for half for a job thatI could not for the life of me,
(13:33):
do over there. But yeah, I wasthere, and Delhi is the place
where I kind of discoveredfreedom, and was there, was was
there, when I was discoveringmyself in terms of life, who am
I as a person? Who am I without,you know, constructs of
(13:55):
constructs of a place, or ofteninstitution, of an institution.
So I always wanted to write abook about Delhi, because that
city is very close to my heart.
And why thrillers? I think deepdown, I am a kid who grew up,
who still, who still loveswatching Cid and the Dalat,
because these are the shows thatI grew up with. And you will, I
(14:17):
don't think you will find manyauthors talk about, like the
television shows being and beingas inspirations. But yeah,
whenever I'm consuming content,I am the biggest fan of the
template that a crime iscommitted. There is a very hard
to crack mystery, and you have adetective who comes in and who
(14:40):
solves the crime, and at theend, at the end of the story,
everything is tied down. So I'vealways been a fan of this toner,
and this toner is very easy forme to think, because it's like a
crime has been committed and youhave to solve it, and then there
has to be. End, which is verysatisfying and and when I was in
(15:00):
college, I kind of was like, Ikind of plugged it into a disco
setting, because I was like, atthe end of the day, you have to
make it interesting. You have tomake it a little offbeat. You
know, people, people are goingto read it, and they're going to
be, there's so many thrillersout there in the market, so how
(15:21):
do you how do you set yourselfapart? So I was clear on one
thing, that it cannot be a veryserious book, because when you
talk about thrillers, thrillersare normally very serious. So
it's like you have to setyourself apart. So I was like,
Okay, I need a setting where Ican put in humor. So I was like,
I cannot do a setting where, youknow, I can. I thought of a lot
(15:44):
of different other settings. AndI was like, I cannot put humor
into that kind of a setting. So,so I was kind of brainstorming
names, and Delhi disco just justcame to me. And I'm a big fan of
alliterations, you know, likethe first first letter and the
second letter of both the wordsare the same letters. So Delhi,
(16:06):
Discord, Speedy. So I was like,this kind of has an appeal, and
let's create a story around it.
And I already had a roughbeginning and ending, ending in
mind, but not A, not A properlydefined version, but, like a
rough, rough version. And I waslike, Okay, let's put it to a
Delhi disco setting. And youknow, once that seed is planted
(16:29):
in your head, and once you startentertaining that idea, and that
seed grows into something reallycool, and you start believing in
that idea. So that happened. Sobefore I actually got down to
writing this book. I dreamtabout it. I dreamt about the
characters, the settings of thejokes that I would put in, the
(16:49):
way the mystery would becracked, the different small
elements in the book. So, yeah,I kind of daydreamed a lot about
it. And the more I daydreamedabout it, I was I was convinced
that this would be a story whichwould appeal to people, and at
the same time, it would alsohave a different element that
people, at least, I have notread read in a very long time.
(17:13):
So, yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (17:14):
yeah, I like the element of the disco,
because I have not seen thateither. And talking about the
setting, you know, I've noticedthat a lot of books, and there's
a good reason why, because evenI'm fascinated with it, you
know, they capture Delhi, andthey capture this very specific
crowd, this, you know, there's avery well off people rules,
don't apply attitude. Andthere's this character in your
(17:35):
book, bhanti Gulati, you know,and he really exemplifies this,
by the way. Love the name. Hehosts a party at the disco,
which is capital, and he getsdrunk, and he crosses boundaries
with Samira, who is the ownerand who's a protagonist, and
then he has the audacity to playvictim when confronted, you
know, so I really like theanalysis of these kind of
(17:58):
people, and I think disco is aperfect place to set them,
because you have things likekitty parties. You know, you
really show a lot of things thathappen. You know, I didn't know
that kitty parties go todiscourse. You have brawls. You
have, you know, huge parties.
You for food, coming in,alcohol, you know, coming in,
people going to a bar rightbefore they even enter the club.
(18:19):
So this Delhi disco ecosystem, Ithink you've captured very
interestingly. So can you tellme a little bit more about, you
know, this ecosystem and whatactually happens in a Delhi
night clock?
Shikhar Goyal (18:38):
Thank you for describing it the way you did.
But all my, all the things thatI've written a more
observational than research andanalysis, so I kind of, I kind
of went out on a limb and putin, put in all these assumptions
and conjecture that I had aboutthis outsider impression that I
(19:01):
had about discourse, because,you know, like, and first of
all, I did not do any researchbefore writing the book about
discourse. I kind of, I was veryhell bent on completing my
manuscript and
Tara Khandelwal (19:14):
gone to a few discourse.
Shikhar Goyal (19:18):
I went to these I went to these clubs and
discourse after I kind of wrote.
I was after I, you know, wasinto 70% into my manuscript. So
I went, I went to these clubs,and I realized whenever I go in
the day, like, you know, becausein the night, you cannot get a
lot of description on the color,because the lights are very dim.
(19:42):
So it's like, Okay, let's go inthe day, and you can get a get a
better gage on what the colorsthat they what are the colors
they've used, what is the kindof alcohol they have stacked
upon on the bar? And I realizedwhen I'm going in the day, the
crowd over. There is, is largelywomen, groups of women who are
there and who are having thesmall parties and and some
(20:05):
places had like two, threesimultaneous groups of women,
and they have joined, likethree, four tables together and
made like this long table. Andthey're doing, and they're doing
these games, activities like howcmbola, or the clicking the
selfies and and they're havingsuch a good time over there,
(20:28):
they're enjoying themselves. SoI kind of started noticing a
pattern, and I realized that,okay, all of these cafes,
Disco's, nightclubs in the day,they kind of become, become a
place for for these kittyparties to happen. And I
realized that's a very goodbusiness model, because in the
(20:49):
day, you have your clientele isyour target. Clientele is
usually low. People are eithercoming for lunch meetings or
people are coming for, you know,having these, these meetups with
their friends. And so, yeah, Ithought that was very
interesting, very interesting toput that in the book. And I went
to a couple of couple of clubs,generally, not Delhi specific,
(21:13):
but generally. And whenever Iwent, I just started observing a
little more, and, and, yeah. Sothe club that that is shown over
your capital is a is a mix of alot of different clubs, not A,
not one in particular, but a lotof different clubs that some
element have taken from here,some element have taken from
(21:35):
there. So, yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (21:39):
nice. Really, I don't go to discourse much, so I
could sort of travel vicariouslythrough the book. And in any
thriller, obviously thecharacters are the most
important, right? Because youhave the protagonist, you have
the suspects, and they reallymove the story ahead. So you
have Neil, who is samira's ex,you know, who flies in from the
(22:00):
US, and he really wants to winher back. Then you have the chef
from the get go. There'ssomething really off about Him,
and He gives us serious creepyvibes. And then you give access
to his diary entries, and wereveal what shaped him, and he's
in love with sabina's mom. Andthere's more that we discover.
There's more going on than whatwe thought. So what is your
(22:20):
favorite character? You know? Isit Neil? Is it Samira? Tell Tell
me and listeners, a little bitmore about the characters in
your
Shikhar Goyal (22:29):
book. You bang on right when you've mentioned the
chef. Chef Alex is my favoritecharacter, because I think
whenever Chef Alex comes. He'ssort of a catalyst for something
to happen in the story, becausethere's never a time that he's
(22:49):
come and the stories, the storyis going on very simply. He kind
of add a lot of spice, and headds a lot of drama to drama,
and a lot of tension to to thestoryline. And whenever he comes
after a certain point, thereader knows that these guys,
(23:10):
he's here to store things up,and things cannot be normal. And
even right in the beginning,when I've introduced him, we do
not see an insider view intothe, you know, into his thought
process, until the diary entrycomes but you still get to know
that there is something unhingedabout him. So I had a very great
(23:33):
time writing the book, andespecially, especially his diary
entries. I think that's the onlypoint in the book which are
written in a first person POV.
And I normally stay away fromwriting first person POV,
because that kind of makes yourestricted. You cannot do a lot
with the plot. You only have tomention anything in the story
(23:54):
which happens with this person.
Whenever this person is notthere in the plot, you cannot
use a first person POV, but whenI wrote chef Alex's diary
entries as first person POV, andwe we travel with him in in his
past and in his recent present,I realized that I'm having a
(24:15):
very good time writing theseentries and and I took A lot of
liberty with developing him as acharacter. He has some issues
going on with his mental health,and he's trying to rectify
those. He's seeing some peoplefor that and the way he
operates. So I think he is myhe's a character that I had the
(24:39):
most fun writing him and the twobumbling policemen that I have
created, kk and Badri. I think Ihad them. I wrote them also with
a lot of fun, because initiallyas a kid, when I also mentioned.
(25:00):
Earlier as a kid, when I used toalways think about writing a
book, I always used to thinkthat the crime is going to
happen in the beginning and I'mgoing to have my detectives, or
the people who are solving thecrime coming right in the first
first few pages of the book. ButI did not do this over here
because I was trying to attemptsomething different. So my
detectives come here in thesecond half of the book. But
(25:22):
they were always supposed to bethe protagonists. In my mind,
they are the protagonists ofthose of the story. So I wrote
them, the characterization, thedepth that I have given them. I
had a very, very good timewriting them and and the
audience feedback also that Ireceived was that they wanted to
(25:43):
see more of KK and Badri, andthey wanted to see more of you
know, what is happening in theirlife, because they enjoyed these
characters so much and andlengthwise, they had a shorter,
shorter length compared To theother characters. So so I kind
of realized that when I when Iheard those feedbacks. But yeah,
(26:06):
so these three characters I hadthe most, I had the most
enjoyable time writing.
Tara Khandelwal (26:14):
Very cool.
Yeah. I also really liked thedetective characters. And I
think also in a thriller, thereveal strategy is very
important, and I think you dothat really well. So for
example, in the PROLOG, youknow, Samira, the protagonist,
Mother, is found dead, and thatis how the story really starts.
And then you know, cut to fiveyears later, where we have Neil
(26:34):
and Samira trying to get backtogether and relaunch this
nightclub and all these seriesof incidents happen. So I also
really enjoy the love story, youknow, Neil and Samira, and they
have this really fun andslightly chaotic chemistry, and
the banter is really good. So atfirst I was like, Oh, this also
is like a romantic comedy. Butthen obviously the stakes just
(26:57):
keep getting darker. So how didyou balance romance and thriller
without one taking over theother?
Shikhar Goyal (27:06):
Wow, I have not asked them this question before,
and I've been, I've been reallywanting somebody to ask me this
because, because, as I told youearlier, the very first thing,
when we started this podcast, Idescribe this book as a
thriller, where murders happenand but you but you laugh. The
tonality is LED. But also I'vesneaked in a romance. I've
(27:31):
sneaked in a like a properromance, which is which, which
is the main driving force of thebook, because without the
romance happening, I don't thinkthe plot moves the way it does,
and a lot of things would nothappen. And I am not the biggest
reader of romance. I've barelyread any romance, I think, in
(27:53):
the past few years, and so I hada very I was very conscious
about the dialogs when it comesto romance, and I had a bunch of
cousins who were my beta readersafter I finished my manuscript
to please tell me that if thisis working, or if this is not,
(28:14):
because am I overdoing, this isthe banter, the banter that I
that I wrote, between Neel AndSamira. I had a great time
writing this. And I was writingthat more from a conversational
point, you know, because whenyou talk to somebody, it's a
you, you use different wordswhen you but when you come to
writing, it's a different word,different word, like your
(28:36):
tonality of writing, the way youwrite stuff is is very
different, written English andspoken English. And what I was
trying to do was trying toinculcate normal spoken English
into written English. So I kindof lost a sense of subjectivity
that is this the correct way todo this? Is this going to be
easy for a reader to read or anddoes this come across as naive,
(29:00):
or does this come across aschildish? Or does this, is this
working or not? And so those arethe parts which were very hard
for me to even edit, because, asI say, that I did not have, I
did not I was not the best judgeabout it, and I was being very,
being extra conscious about howthis is going to come out, so I
(29:24):
did a lot of rewrites. I kind ofthere were parts where I felt
that dialog was dragging, so Ikind of cut them short and I I
added a little punchier dialogso that people would, people
would, would not think that itis going a little too slow, and
(29:44):
that happened and and most ofit, I think, was a whim that I
just I was like, okay, there arethese two characters and who've
been in love with each other atsome point, and now both of them
are not at. A level at the atthe level that they want for
each other, but, but still, theyare here with some sort of
(30:08):
previous experience with withlove, with each other, but no
nothing happening between themright now, but one of them wants
something to happen and but whatthey cannot deny is the
chemistry. So I kind ofapproached it in a way that
friends would talk to eachother, not necessarily exes or
(30:29):
lovers, but friends, bestfriends, different gendered best
friends, talking to each other,taking their case, pulling their
leg, because no matter whatdifferent expectations they have
of each other, they cannot denythe fact that they have this
sizzling chemistry that theyhave with each other.
Tara Khandelwal (30:47):
So yeah, and tell me more about who these
people are. Who is Neil, who isSamira, what drives them?
Shikhar Goyal (30:55):
Neil is somebody who Neil is somebody who wears
his heart on his sleeve. Hewasn't he was in the New York
City when Samira was there for ashort time. She was there for
some, for some course that shewas attending. And they met over
there. It was a chance meeting.
And they met when Samira isonline, hint state stood her up,
(31:17):
and she was waiting, waiting ata club. And Neil was a DJ at
that club. And they both Indiansand and you know, if you travel
abroad, when you see, when yousee, when you see somebody of
your same somebody of the samenationality, you just become
kindred spirits. And at leastthat's what I have seen in my
(31:41):
own experience. I think you you,you are easier to become friends
when you see somebody you knowwho you, who you share a culture
with. And I think that's whathappened with them. Kind of Neil
kind of sees this girl sittingby herself, and he dedicates the
song to her in the club. Andthey get talking, and even
(32:03):
though, even though she's therefor a very short time, they end
up dating and Neil. Neilproposes to her on New Year's
Eve in New York City, in TimesSquare, which is, which is,
again, a very which is supposedto be a very romantic thing, and
a lot of people do that all theycome from all around the world,
(32:24):
and they do that, either that orParis before the Eiffel Tower.
So I kind of played into thatstereotype. And and Neil, he
wears his heart on the sleeve.
As I said, they've just, they'vejust been dating for like, a few
weeks, and I would not say, evenmonths at this time, and he
(32:44):
already wants to propose to herand make her his wife. And she's
not ready for that. For her, itis a fling at that point, and
and when her course is over, shejust comes back to India and she
leaves him, or she leaves himover there. And Neil kind of
comes back, comes to India onhis first ever trip. So Neil is
(33:08):
Indian origin, but he's notIndian. He's American. And he's
born and brought up in in theUS, and he comes to India. And
because he's a DJ, he kind offinds work with other clubs in
the in the city in Delhi. Sothat Sameera does not think that
he's come here only to woo her,even though that's the main
reason. But he he cannot saythat because she's already told
(33:32):
him no once, and he does notwant to force her into anything.
And he wants to kind of make ita little organic. And he's here
and to woo her back, and he getshis gets a ring that his mother
has given him, the same ringthat his father used to propose
to his mother. So there's alittle bit of backstory and a
(33:54):
little bit of more sentimentattached to that. And Samira is
somebody who just lost hermother a couple of years ago and
her father a decade before that,and and she is this rich, social
light business woman who'slaunching her own club called
(34:15):
capital. And for her, herpriority is that she wants to
revive the club and makesomething of herself in terms of
a career and ambition, and shehas no time for love at this
point, because for her, it isvery important to come across as
somebody who's independent andsomebody who's not just, not
(34:37):
just a Nepo kid, as You wouldsay, Who's, who's, you know,
just being given her parentsmoney and she could have an easy
life. So she has this goal forherself that she wants to crack
the folks 30, under 30, and shewants to be known for her
business acumen rather than herfashion sense. And. So yes, as I
(35:00):
mentioned, love is somethingthat is completely not on her
mind. And when Neil tells herthat you know that this might be
the reason that I am here, thatI want things to come back to
the same way as they were, when,when, when you were in New York,
she tells him off, and she'svery clear about her stuff. And
(35:21):
so I think she is not a hopelessromantic, but Neil is, and
Samira is a little pragmatic.
And I think that's that's abeautiful thing, because that
plays on in the chemistry thatthey both share. Because you
have you, you have a betterstory if you have two very
different people, very differentcharacters, who have very
different sensibilities and verydifferent expectations of what
(35:44):
they want in life from eachother. So yeah, I think the both
of their different sensibilitiesplay into play into their love
stories, their their dynamic andhow the story moves forward.
Yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (36:01):
that's very well described. And I think you
know your characters really,really well. It almost feels
like you're friends with them. Ialso want to talk now about, you
know, because you're a debutauthor, and, you know, sort of,
I've sort of, like, also beenseeing your journey a lot of
authors. You know, the journeyisn't always smooth. You send
(36:22):
out work, you don't hear backfor ages. So what was your
publishing journey and whathelped you stay motivated
through that process?
Shikhar Goyal (36:30):
Oh, stay motivated. I'm going to answer
the stay motivated through theprocess. One first i If you read
my acknowledgements also, Iwrote my acknowledgments before
I started writing the book. I Imade a cover of my book. It had
(36:52):
a it had two, three peopledancing, and they have like
gunshot and knives wounds in aclub. And I wrote Delhi disco,
and I wrote Chicago below that,and I got a print out of that,
and I pasted that along with theacknowledgements, and I made a
(37:13):
post that I was going to post onInstagram the day that I break
the news to the world. So Iwrote that already, and I and I
made printouts of all of themand pasted at my study table
before I wrote a single word ofthe book. And I used to look at
them, and I used to stay somotivated, because, you know,
(37:35):
writing is is a marathon. It'snot a sprint. You have to do it
across so many days, but also atthe same point, it's a lonely
marathon. There are no otherrunners running beside you. You
cannot see people live runningbeside you. You are just there
with yourself. And so this ishow I kept myself motivated. I
used to look at these things infront of me whenever I'm having
(37:59):
a writer's block, whenever I'mnot feeling that I can write
today, I used to look at thesethings, and I used to say to
myself, that, dude, you got tomake these things a reality.
Because just imagine how cool itwill be, how wonderful it will
be when people read the storythat's been in your mind for
such a long time. So that's howI start. That's how I kept being
(38:23):
motivated all time. And yes, thejourney of a debutant author who
does not come from publishing,who does not know people, for
guidance, for support, who doesnot know authors, publishers,
agents, anybody, the journey isvery overwhelming. The journey
is, I had a very difficult timeearly on. I felt when I've
(38:47):
written my manuscript, I thoughtthat, okay, now I'm going to
send it to somebody, and withinsix months, I am going to be
published and the book is goingto be out. I had no idea. I had
zero idea how the industryworks. I had no benchmark, no
yardstick to measure it against.
And I was like, wow, you'vewritten a book, and that's all
it takes. But little did I knowthat getting a book published is
(39:11):
a different ball game altogetherfrom writing it. These are two
very different things, and youhave to do both of them. You
just writing a book is notenough. You have to get it
published. And you have to getit published in the correct way
so that it reaches the maximumnumber of people. Because I
(39:31):
think that should be theultimate aim for a book to book
to have. So early on, I was toldthat write to all the literary
agents in the country, andbecause if a literary agent
likes your book, he or she canpitch it to a publisher. And if
(39:52):
your book is is given to, if abook is on boarded to a literary
agent, I. That is as good asbeing published, because they
take care of everything. But Ikind of chased all the agents in
the country for, I think, six toseven months, and I did not get
the replies that I was expectingfrom them. And hence I was like,
(40:16):
Okay, I've spent a considerableamount of time at this point, I
should start taking things in myown hand, because what's the
worst that will happen?
Everybody will reject me, orthey won't reply to me. I can
wait another year, another yearand a half, because I have to do
(40:39):
something about it. I cannotjust keep waiting for people to
reply to me. I have to storethings up on my own. And that's
what I started doing. I startedreaching out to publishing
houses on my own. Bound has ahas a service where they provide
publishing guidance. So I kindof, I kind of went to bound
(41:04):
India also. I got my mind, gotmy submission packaged, refined,
and I went to a lot of differentpublishing houses. I used to
write to them. Please tell me.
Please tell me if my book isworthy of, you know,
representation from yourpublishing house, and I'm
willing to tweak things that youwant, and based on the replies
(41:25):
that I would get, I based on thefeedback that I used to get, I
used to alter my submissionpackage. I used to alter things
accordingly, because, you know,you are not perfect when you are
sending stuff out and people whoare rejecting your work are not
evil or then I cannot say thatthey do not understand your
(41:47):
work. It's just that thesepeople have been in the industry
for so long they know what worksand what does not work. And so I
realized that the more people Italk to, the more rejections I
get, the more feedback I will beable to receive, and the more
alterations I can do to mysubmission package, and the
better I can make it. And beforeI actually got my deal with
(42:12):
Penguin, I might have spoken to7080, maybe 100 people or
different people, editors,authors, people in publishing
houses, people who have met atbookstores, bookstores, and I
asked them, Ki or ye book,chapana, sikawa, Mirco, because
I thought that because thesepeople are selling books, they
(42:36):
might have some in towards apublishing house. And whatever
advice I got, whether it workedor not, it kind of ultimately
shaped the way the submissionpackage actually was made, and
and I made an entire marketingplan for my book. I realized, I
realized that I have to approachthis in the way of somebody as
(42:59):
somebody who's applying for ajob, or somebody who's applying,
somebody who's applying applyingat a university, you always do
not have to talk about how greatyour book is, how great you are.
You also have to tell peoplepublishing houses per se, what
is in this book for them? Youhave to tell them that this
(43:23):
book, because everything, everypublishing house, is a
corporation at the end of theday, and they're here to push a
product forward in the market.
Because all of this does willnot make sense. You know, if
your book does not sell copies,if you want to write more books
in the future, your books haveto sell, I feel, and that's
where my entrepreneur braincomes into place, because I
(43:47):
recognize that for anyenterprise, things have to sell,
like, you know, things have tobe marketed well, and they have
to sell. And so I made amarketing plan, and I jotted
down a lot of things that, youknow, we will do this. We will
do that. I'm ready to push hardfor my book on my own. I'm ready
(44:08):
to take owners and initiativeand ownership for my book and
and I wrote this really detailedplan that, you know, and I wrote
different USPS of my book thatthat I envision this being
turned into an OTT sometime, ora movie or an OTT series
sometime, and so all of thesethings will will mean that there
(44:31):
is more exposure and moremarketing push on it, on its
own, for the book. So I so themain thing that I did was I
started telling differententities that how this book is
going to help you, and when itcame to Penguin, I realized that
Penguin has already come outwith books which are which are
(44:54):
thrillers and mysteries, buthave tonalities in a very
comical sense. So penguin. Hadcome out with the Thursday Motor
Club series, and everyone in myfamily has killed someone, and
and Harper had come out withanother Johan books, which are,
which are, comedy, Thrillermysteries. And so I realized
(45:14):
that these publishing houseswould have the bandwidth to
understand what my book is, andthey would be better able to
place the book in their lineup.
So I, I contacted penguin first,and I told them that, you know,
this book is similar to whatwhat is already there in your
title, so it is not a completelyalien project. And so I think
(45:37):
all of these things ultimatelyhelped me to get published and
and I, and it seems easier saidthan done, because by the time I
got my deal, I had spent a lotof time in frustration
desperation. I had alreadystarted to explore or different
(45:58):
options I had started to exploreor Kindle, Direct Publishing,
which is big in the West, but Idon't know if it has kicked off
the way it has kicked off therein India yet. So I was keen on
exploring that and and I kind oftold myself that that I have
another year to probably reachout to all the publishing houses
(46:21):
in India and to pursue them. Andif that does not work out,
probably Kindle, DirectPublishing would have been the
way to go. And, yeah, but Ithink I was incredibly lucky to
have,
Tara Khandelwal (46:38):
yeah, I really liked the way that you
approached it, you know? BecauseI also always tell people that
approach it as a product, youknow, I think you want to.
Unknown (46:50):
Can you hear
Shikhar Goyal (46:53):
me? I can hear you now. Oh, could you hear me
before this lag
Tara Khandelwal (46:58):
for like five seconds? Ah, okay, okay, um, so
maybe I just like move on to therapid fire round now, because I
don't want the internet
Shikhar Goyal (47:06):
to this thing.
Wow. Okay,
Tara Khandelwal (47:10):
okay, so thanks for that story. And I think I
really liked, you know, the waythat your entrepreneurship
background has come in, becausethat's something that I also
tell people that approach thebook as a prod, broad product,
and you're very methodical aboutit, and love the fact that you
had your goal so set already,that you were working towards
it, so I can already see howgoal oriented you are and able
(47:32):
to break things down. Okay, sonow it's time for a rapid fire
round where you have to answermy questions in one word or one
sentence only. Okay. Okay. IfDelhi disco was turned into a
movie, who would you cast asSamira, Neil and Alex?
Shikhar Goyal (47:49):
Samira would be Alaya F I'll do you a better her
mom, Maya Kapoor, would be Poojababy, because it real life. Mom
and daughter deals. Neil wouldbe sidhanth Chaturvedi, and Alex
is a character that I havewritten for Vinay Bartok. I when
(48:09):
I was writing it, I knew thatI'm writing it for Vinay Bartok,
and he's the only actor that Ihave envisioned playing Alex.
Tara Khandelwal (48:17):
Oh, so you really thought about it. Is
there a talk about this beingturned into
Shikhar Goyal (48:22):
a movie, not at this stage. I'm trying to pursue
that. I would be the happiestperson on the planet, if that,
if that happens. But yes, I'mtrying to pursue that.
Tara Khandelwal (48:33):
Yeah. I think it would be really good for a
movie, especially with the wholedisco stuff. Okay, yeah, what
is, what is your go to thrillerbook?
Shikhar Goyal (48:43):
My go to thriller book, I think it's any Sydney
Sheldon book, if tomorrow comes,I would say if tomorrow comes a
bloodline, yeah.
Tara Khandelwal (48:53):
And what's your go to thriller movie?
Shikhar Goyal (48:56):
Thriller movie?
Oh my god. I saw this amazingKorean movie on Netflix the
other month. It's calledforgotten. It's currently
available on the Indian Netflix.
I without revealing too much ofthe plot, I'll just say that
there is a boy who thinks thatwho sees his brother being
(49:16):
abducted, and his brother, afterabduction, comes back to home
after a couple of weeks, andthis man realized that it is not
his brother but somebody else,some an in impersonator, who's
trying to take the place of hisbrother. And the story how it
unfolds, it's completely mindboggling. 100% recommended,
(49:38):
forgotten on Netflix India.
Tara Khandelwal (49:41):
Oh, my god, yeah, definitely. I think I
would have watched it if you hadto choose one book to take with
you on a 24 hour flight. Whatwould it
Shikhar Goyal (49:51):
be? Or any book from Anuja Chauhan, ma'am,
Glossary of books I have notread her recent. Two books which
are, which are mysterythrillers. So probably one of
those. There's a book calledclub you to death, which was
recently made into a Netflixmovie. Also not seen the movie
either, but she's my favoriteauthor. So her book club due to
(50:14):
death, because I'm really,really want to read that book.
Yeah,
Tara Khandelwal (50:17):
actually, I was going to mention your nujaa
Chauhan, because I see thewriting also, yeah, so that's
wonderful to know what's nextfor you. What are you working on
next?
Shikhar Goyal (50:28):
I am working on another book which is which has
a similar tonality. It is acomedy thriller, and without
revealing too much about theplot, it is about a fraudulent
Instagram influencer. And, yeah,it is very current. It is very
(50:49):
Gen Z and Millennial. And I amhaving such a great time writing
it, and ever since I gotpublished, and I'm receiving all
sorts of feedback and critique,I know I know what I know the
direction that I have to take,and I'm just having a great time
(51:10):
writing it. And hopefully, hope,hopefully, sooner than later, we
see that
Tara Khandelwal (51:17):
that sounds like a really fun topic and also
very relevant and not donebefore. Love to read that as
well. And is that also going tobe published by Penguin, or
you've not started
Shikhar Goyal (51:27):
that process yet?
I It's too premature to say thatthere is no deal or anything,
but too premature to say that.
But I hope it happens throughthem. Yeah, because I'm obliged
to show it to them also. And,yeah, because I've had a great
time, the best time at Penguinand everything has been so
(51:48):
smooth, and I could not imagineanybody else. I could not
imagine coming out with a bookin my life with anybody else.
Tara Khandelwal (51:55):
Oh, wow. It's a lovely endorsement. Okay, yeah,
yeah. It's been so greatchatting with you, Shikhar and
to all our listeners, if you'relooking for a thriller that has
a pulse on Delhi party culture,layered characters and a plot
twist, you will not see coming.
Pick up Delhi risk. And hey, ifyou're a friend who's a thriller
junkie, send them this episode.
(52:18):
Don't forget to rate review usand hit Spotify Apple podcast,
or wherever you tune in. You canalso follow us on Instagram and
bound India to be updated andall things bound. Thank you so
much. Hikar, this is really fun.
Shikhar Goyal (52:30):
Thank you so much. Tara, I had a blast
talking about my book andtalking about my journey in
general. And it was awesome. Itwas my first podcast I had a
great time. So glad. Yeah.
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