Bapsi Sidhwa on writing Water

New York: The book on Deepa Mehta's controversial film Water is out. It’s written by leading South Asian author, Bapsi Sidhwa.

Bapsi Sidhwa is the author of The Ice-Candy Man or Cracking India, the novel on which Deepa Mehta had based her film, 1947 Earth.

She has now worked with Deepa Mehta again but this time there's a curious twist.

It was Deepa Mehta’s turn to provide a completed film to Bapsi Sidhwa to write a book on.

Sidhwa was startled at the offer to create a novel out of a complete screenplay.

"It was a different experience altogether but it was an exhilarating experience because I wrote it in four months. So it was intense, short spurt of work and very satisfying. And I enjoyed it because it is a beautiful film," said Sidhwa.

Sidhwa was writing about a world already imagined so she decided to create a backstory for the main character Chuyia, played in the movie by the Sri Lankan child actor, Sarala.

"So I made this child's background, I wrote that. In doing that I possessed the book. I wrote the book before the movie actually starts,” she said.

“In doing that I was able to get a handle on this book, possess this child's character so that I could continue with her and she becomes my character," she explained.

Of course, this is the second book tied-in to the release of Water.

Earlier, there was the non-fiction book, Shooting Water by Deepa Mehta's daughter, Devyani Saltzman.

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