Amish Tripathi forays into historical fiction with story of King Suheldev

Published by Westland, the story of King Suheldev is based on folk-lores and many characters have been fictionalised.

Famous Indian author Amish Tripathi has announced his new book ‘Suheldev & The Battle of Bahraich’, the first in a new series called ‘Indic Chronicles’.

While his fans wait for the third book in his ‘Rama Chandra Series’, ‘Raavan: Son Of Aryavarta’, the author confirmed it was “right on schedule” and will launch it by the end of this year or early next year.

“The story of Raavan is long, his life was difficult and I want to showcase the emotions right. I am more than halfway through it already. But Suheldev is not delaying the book at all. This was the plan with the publishers and we are launching each book according to schedule,” the author of Shiva trilogy said.

To be launched on July 16, ‘Suheldev & The Battle of Bahraich’ will tell the story of the battle fought by Raja Suheldev of Shravasti in 1025 AD that drove away the Turks for 170 years.

Published by Westland, the book will also mark the author’s entry into historical fiction. The story of King Suheldev is based on folk-lores and many characters have been fictionalised, the author said.

“The way history is taught to us presents the narrative in a very distorted way. A lot of heroes are airbrushed in our history books and there are many more about whom we never read...It is a great story of our country and to me this is a very important message in today’s time,” he added.

Assisted by Vikas Singh, Suheldev is also the first book with which Tripathi has introduced the concept of Writer’s Center in India.

Through Writer’s Center an author can hire one or more authors to write a book based on a story shared by them. The hired author researches and writes a draft before the author gives it a final touch.

The author plans to release 20 books in every six months under the ‘India Chronicles’ through Writer’s Center.

“Writer’s Centre has been my support system for this book. It not only enables me to hire a writer but also create a skeleton framework for my ideas to turn them into 500 pages worth of material. Working on this book with Vikas Singh has created a pool of ideas and stories for another. There are two other projects also that I am working on with other writers,” he said.

Tripathi announced the new book on film actress Sonali Bendre’s social media page ‘Book Club’. The actress said that it was a “wonderful thing” for Amish to bring out a piece of history with the new book.

“We should revive the art of teaching through storytelling similar to ancient Gurukuls. When everything is taught like a story, children will retain it better. Parents should encourage schools to practice now forms of teaching rather than pushing their children in a rat race where children don’t retain information for long,” she said.