Interview of Ravi Krishnan | Author of The Fall of Pritu: Juggernaut

Ravi Krishnan, was born in Bangalore, grew up in Chennai and completed his bachelors in Electronics and Communication from Anna University. Then he went for further studies to US and completed his MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University, NY.

His love and passion for making movies brought him back to India in 2010. He went ahead to write, direct and even act in an Independent Sci-Fi movie named Light Year Man. It was during the writing of the movie he re-discovered his other passion, writing.

He is also working in a technology company named JDA Software as a Technical Consultant. Since childhood he has been a big fan of Sci-Fi and envisioned the Vedic literature as a big source of ideas and characters, which is not explored from the modern perspective. He has been writing short stories at Indianscifi.in and then most recently he wrote his first novel named The Fall of Pritu : Juggernaut.

Recently we got a chance to have a small conversation with Mr. Ravi Krishnan. Here it is:

A tough choice to list great authors. I grew up reading Michael Crichton, R. K. Narayan, John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer. Then came the SciFi craze with Douglas Adams, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K Le Guin, Philip K. Dick. Also I love to read Amitav Ghosh and other Indian writings.

All R. K. Narayan books, he is a genius. Michael Crichton‘s The Terminal Man, Jurassic Park, Lost World, Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh. Phew! This can go on.

Neal Stephenson‘s Snow Crash.

I don’t want to sound preachy here but the human species have been the biggest disaster to nature. The rate at which we have grown does not conform to the natural ways. The way to preserve our home is to leave it as quickly as possible, by that I mean human space travel into other solar bodies and then probably to other stars. Human space travel is inevitable. The choice is whether by force or by choice.

Ancient Indian literature is rich in characters and stories that we have a million ways to retell. Audience get attracted to great story telling and yes with recognizable characters. What modern perspective for me is when I push the boundary a little further and give the next generation something new and fresh. I believe there is an audience attracted to every niche genre, the challenge is to reach them.

Self-publishing has its good and bad. I did submit my manuscript to various publishing houses, agents and also exhibited it in the Bloody Good Book. While the publishing houses and agents either did not respond or rejected it, I did get a good feedback from BGB, though was not picked up for publication. Later I was impatient to get my story out to readers and hence decided to go the self-publishing way.

Publishing a book is not difficult these days. It is getting it to the readers that is turning out to be a challenge. With the help of family and friends I am slowly spreading the reach.

There is no denial of the fact that a book published by a house would have a farther reach but then again there are way too may stories and story tellers that the existing publishing houses could handle. At the end of the day stories does matter more.

To be honest I am still experimenting and figuring it out. I sometimes have a good day where I churn out hundreds of words and then there are some really dull days. But I am putting in a practice where I am streamlining my writing process and the research associated with it. Yes, mornings work for me when it comes to writing.

Vikram’s character is close to my heart and personality. Agasth is someone who I wish I was. So all scenes of Agasth and many of Vikram’s where he struggles is what I would pick.

I want to explore the Geo-political implications of a new extra-terrestrial superpower suddenly showing up and making all the nations look like ants. Also Vikram has more growing up and learning to do so that one. Plus we have many loose ends to tie.

Sure. I love Science Fictions and love writing them but I also love detective thrillers and comedy. Maybe it will be a mash-up of all these.

Science Fiction is a beautiful genre that explores human struggles, values and aspirations without getting bound by time. It allows us to discuss, debate and warn about the present and future. Also it inspires us to pursue science and technology. Hope to popularize this genre in India more. Thanks.

Hope you have enjoyed the conversation and found some of your questions answered from him 🙂

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