Under the covers

One of his books got the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. He has done about 60 sting operations for various television channels, the most infamous of these was Operation West End. His latest book, The Emissary, will be out next weekend. Anirudhha Bahal tells Aditi Phadnis that he revels in bloodless cuts

For Aniruddha Bahal, writer, film-maker and investigative journalist, the moment of truth came in Lucknow when he was in his early 20s. He had just joined a financial newspaper and his proud parents had cut out all his reports and made a scrap book. Bahal used to anchor a page called ‘Corporate Royalty’ — a full-page 3,000-word weekly profile of one or other corporate baron. Over tea with a friend from Canada, his mother brought out the scrap-book and showed it to her friend. “My son has written this,” she said.

“Our Canadian guest read it right to the end but didn’t say a word about the writing, style... nothing. All she said was: ‘It’s good for the person in question.’ I was in the other room, in Lucknow on vacation and I heard her comment. At that time, I comprehended only dimly, what she’d meant. Later, I realised how full of s**t that kind of journalism is,” Bahal says. Bahal turned tack with a veangence. All his work after this —whether as a journalist or film-maker — has been an attack on pretension, lies and hypocrisy. His enemies are the self-righteous and the corrupt. They are objects of savage satire and ridicule, mounted by Bahal with a straight face.

Full report here Business Standard