Ruskin Bond on his two new books, writing for Vishal Bhardwaj’s next and being ‘too old’ to star opposite Priyanka Chopra

Tell us about the story you are writing for Vishal Bhardwaj’s next film, The Seven Husbands.
I can’t tell you much about it, what if someone reads this, steals the story and makes a film? Vishal asked me if I could do another story for him and I saw no reason why I wouldn’t. He liked a four-page short story of mine, Susanna’s Seven Husbands. I expanded it into a 200-page episodic piece that can be filmed. My protagonist is a femme fatale who bumps off her seven husbands… I had to find ingenious ways of bumping seven people off while writing the story. Not something that I am used to contemplating generally.

There are talks of casting Priyanka Chopra as the lead in the film. Do you think she fits the bill?
I haven’t actually seen her films. She gives a lot of interviews on TV so I have seen her occasionally. My protagonist comes from an Anglo-Indian background, she is a beautiful lady, but reserved. She isn’t very glamorous like Ms Chopra and doesn’t try to charm men in obvious ways. I hope Vishal will keep that in his characterisation. She is very smart too. She even gives an old husband of hers an overdose of Viagra in my story, who of course can’t take it. No, no, I can’t give out anymore of the story. My only regret will be, I couldn’t be cast as one of Ms Chopra’s seven husbands. Guess I am too old for that (laughs).