Click to play videoNew Delhi: Spain-born author, Javier Moro loves India. Perhaps he inherited it from his uncle Dominique Lapierre. But Moro's latest book, Passion India is as much about Spain, as its about India.
"I have always been interested in the end of the Raj, and in this fabulous characters of Indian maharajahs, and I found the perfect vehicle to tell that story, because there I had that Spanish woman who married the Maharaja of Kapurthala. She lived that world in first row. Through her eyes one could live that society, conflicts of that time," Moro says.
"She was also very impartial viewer of what happened around her because she was neither British, nor Indian, and she suffered from both. And that made her point of view extremely interesting, and that's what passion India is, it's the end of the Raj through the eyes of this Spanish woman,’he adds.
So, how does one take Passion India - dramatised non-fiction or fictionalised? history?
"Its non-fiction and its fiction. Its fiction because I had to recreate the dialogues between these characters, but it is fiction backed on quite important documentation, that I found in the British archives in London, British library, India office has Kapurthala papers,” says Moro.
If Passion India is creating ripples in Spain, its creating a controversy in India.
Even as Moro claims to have only fictionalised history, Shatrujit Singh, the great descendant of the Maharajah, didn’t quite like the idea to have his grandfather being termed a womaniser, or to have his Spanish great grandmother’s liaisons made public.
But Javier Moro is unfazed.
"I am very grateful to him, because he has made fabulous publicity for my book. I propose to him to come to the British library, ask for Kapurthala papers, and everything he can read in the books, its there. These are documents, there is a basis of passion India, and it doesn't come all out of my head,” says Moro.
And the icing on the cake came when Penelope Cruz saw a tailor-made script in the plot.
"I just sold the rights of the book to Penelope Cruz, and she immediately saw this was a part for her, and I am sure she will do that wonderfully well, because she is this kind, southern Spanish with a very fresh outlook on life. I know they are setting up an international co-production, and u know these things take time, and hopefully we will be able to see the movie in May in 2008,” he says.
And if wishes were horses, who according to him would suit the role of the Maharajah?
"Amitabh Bachachan I think would play a fantastic maharajah,” Moro says.
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