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Was it the book, the movie, lead actor Aamir Khan or director Rajkumar Hirani? That's anybody's guess. But when 3 Idiots, based on Chetan Bhagat's best-selling novel 5 Point Someone, became the biggest grossing Hindi film of all time, Bollywood sat up.

The industry now has a slew of movies based on contemporary books, as opposed to those by revered writers such as Munshi Premchand or Ruskin Bond, Bengali novelists such as Rabindranath Tagore and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and of course epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Shakespeare has also been a favourite (especially with Vishal Bharadwaj), Dostoevsky and A.J. Cronin have got a look-in and so has Jane Austen.

The contemporary voice in literature was largely ignored till Hindi movie-making itself changed and sought a new idiom. Not unexpectedly, there was a commercial reason underlying this change: teens and twenty-somethings are now the most lucrative segment of the movie market, with more than 50 per cent of India's population under 25. Besides, all the housewives who sobbed through those teary ‘family socials' have now switched to TV's free viewing, reducing the power of that segment (and movies geared to it) considerably.

When Bollywood set out to look for young themes, Chetan Bhagat, India's bestselling author, was a predictable choice. He was young, his writing had an easy, casual tone and he spoke the language of the youth. All his five books have made it to the movies or will do soon. Besides 3 Idiots, there was also Hello, based on his One Night @the Call Center. The 3 Mistakes of My life, 2 States: the story of my marriage, and Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition have all been snapped up by the dream factory as well.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan has said he wished to adapt Anuja Chauhan's novel The Zoya Factor for the big screen and film and music major Saregama chose her second novel Battle For Bittora (even if we haven't heard of much progress on both fronts). And of course, there is Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, based on diplomat Vikas Swarup's book Q & A, which was a runaway success internationally and in India.

In the last couple of months, two books have been picked up by major production houses. The first was Ashwin Sanghi's Chanakya's Chant, a book that intertwined two parallel stories: one set in 340BC around Chanakya, considered India's best political strategist (India's Machiavelli if you will), and the other set in the muck-ridden milieu of modern-day Indian politics. The rights have been acquired by production major UTV and will be directed by period specialist Ashutosh Gowariker.

The second book is Amish Tripathi's Immortals of Meluha, in which the maverick god Shiva is, in the author's words, "a chilled-out dude" who falls in love with the fiery Sati. This one's been acquired by Dharma Productions, helmed by Karan Johar, among India's most successful directors and producers. Both are what's popularly called a ‘racy read' and, interestingly, both blend historical legend and mythology with contemporary voices.

Sanghi believes that his book "struck a politically relevant chord" at a time when India has been rocked by political scandals. Also, he says, "Its pace works for today's reduced attention spans."

Tripathi says all the producers wooing him remarked that the book had a "truly Indian quality" yet its interpretation was unique. "Best of both worlds" is a phrase he heard a lot, he reveals. He pretty much sums up what film-makers are looking for in a book: it has to be rooted in India, it's got to be real, and it must speak the language of the under-25s.

Interested authors may apply.