His first book Of Course, I Love You… Till I Find Someone Better sold 300,000 copies. More than 150,000 copies of his second, Now That You're Rich… Let's Fall In Love! flew off the shelves. The third and fourth - She Broke Up, I Didn't! and Ohh Yes, I Am Single… And So Is My Girlfriend - sold 250,000 each while his most recent You Were My Crush… Til you said you love me! has already sold more than 100,000 copies.
With five national best-sellers (four of them co-authored) in four years, little wonder that Indian writer Durjoy Datta is on a high.
The 24-year-old has a huge fan (read female) following and receives scores of messages and phone calls from readers every day. While some praise his writing style, others are unabashed in mentioning their love for his dimpled cheeks!
He rose to the challenge
So, how does it feel? "Nice. It feels good when one gets recognition and people start saying they love your work," says Durjoy, who has now set up a publishing house as well.
An engineer by profession and a writer by passion, Durjoy, who was born in Gujarat, Western India, says his entry into the world of writing began after he was challenged by a friend to write a 40,000-word story. "I was heavily into blogging and the blogsville experience had given me a fair idea of what people liked to read," says Durjoy. "It sort of became a testing ground for me."
The result was his first book, which was co-written with his friend Maanvi Ahuja. Released in August 2008, it remained on India Today's best-seller list for 17 consecutive weeks putting Durjoy into the literary spotlight almost overnight.
Set in Delhi during 2006-08, Of Course, I Love You… revolves around nightclubs, colleges and friendships, and offers a dark and hilarious view of modern day relationships.
"It took us two months to write the book,'' he says. "Writing turned out to be a pleasant experience. The manuscript was accepted just a few days after I submitted it to Delhi-based Srishti Publishers and in just two months the book hit the stands."
A story of love lost
It was the first of a trilogy on the tumultuous lives of two individuals - Deb, a flirtatious college student, and Avantika, the girl he falls in love with. Everything appears rosy for the two but just as Deb is preparing to walk hand in hand with her into the sunset, she dumps him at the behest of her spiritual mentor. To make matters worse, the heartbroken Deb is also thrown out of college after his grades go down. To make ends meet, he takes a job in a government office and waits for his life to improve and for Avantika to return to him.
"The characters are fictional, though very generic in nature. Inspiration for the story came from life around me and from the people I share my life with,'' says Durjoy. "In fact, I see a bit of myself in Deb. Our behavioural patterns are a lot like each other. But then that could be said for many boys I know."
Coming back to real life, what made him switch from engineering to writing? "I couldn't imagine spending a lifetime of servitude," he says, not wanting to dwell too long on a short period in his life when he was working in an engineering firm in Delhi. "I just can't take orders from anyone," he declares.
His lucky charms
Except for She Broke Up... (which he wrote solo) all other books were co-authored with women - Of Course I Love You… and Now That You're Rich... with Maanvi Ahuja; Oh Yes, I'm Single... with Neeti Rustagi and You Were My Crush.... with Orvana Ghai.
Are women his lucky charm? "Oh yes,'' says the writer. "That apart, they hate my writing and I find that both intriguing and challenging. Together, we somehow manage to settle down with a saleable manuscript. Because at the end of it all the books have to be commercially viable," he laughs.
But why does he switch co-authors so often? "It's usually difficult for my women co-writers to endure what I put them through during the course of writing a book, so they give up after a time,'' he laughs. "On a serious note, I think every working relationship has an expiry date, I just reach mine sooner!"
Durjoy believes his books are popular, particularly with college students, because they portray a carefree lifestyle and are heavy on slang. However, what you will not find a lot of in his works is SMS lingo.
"I don't understand why people find it such a hassle to type a few extra letters when they text," he says. "Using abbreviations is understandable but what annoys me most is when the new spelling has more letters than the original word. Replacing ‘my' with ‘mah' doesn't make you popular. Calling cool ‘kewl' certainly perturbs me."
Is it easy to churn out one hit after another every year? Writing is easy, Durjoy says. "The difficult part is getting started because I'm essentially lazy," he admits.
A family secret
He says that initially he didn't tell his parents that he had written a novel that was making waves in the publishing industry. "When reviews of the book started appearing in newspapers and magazines they asked me about it and for some time I remained non-committal. In fact, I even went to the extent of telling them that it was not I who had written the book but somebody who shared my name.
"The reason was that the book was very in-your-face and I was scared of the reactions it would elicit from my parents. But then, Mom found a copy hidden in my cupboard and the secret was out. Eventually, they read it and liked it and now I have their support."
So how would he describe the female protagonist in his works? "She is ever so beautiful and exotic,'' he says. And is there a special someone in his life? "No, I am not answering that one. It's one of the best-kept secrets and is not going to be out anytime soon!"
