April 23 marks World Book Day. On the occasion, former actor and celebrated author Twinkle Khanna opened up about her next book, why her goal isn’t to offend people, and where she imbibed her love for poetry from.
In an official statement, Twinkle Khanna reflected on her upcoming book, and how she feels it might upset a few people. “My job is to make people reflect on the things that are visible. But our own conditioning blinds us to those factors. It might make people uncomfortable and they might call it offensive... (But) I think about how I will unravel the layers of conditioning not just around them but also around me because I also find my way through life as I write,” she said.
She also credited her experience in movies adding to her writing, adding, “Books have always been my life and actually so has cinema. So much of what I write has been because of the experiences that I also had as a young actor, whether it was seeing the basic inequalities between men and women. which I only realised much later in life."
Among other subjects, Twinkle Khanna spoke the influence of her family in her journey as a writer. She recalls how her love for language came from her father and late superstar Rajesh Khanna. She said, “I have a distinct memory when I was very young and I said, 'Will you pick me up from school? And he said, ‘Are you a pickup? I will fetch you from school.’ That kind of just set my parameters of what language can do. I grew up in a family of readers. My sister (Rinkle Khanna) reads more than I do.”
Twinkle also recalled how her husband Akshay Kumar often advises her on not to touch upon certain topics. “This morning, I was discussing the topics I plan to touch upon in my next column, and he told me, 'Mat karna...do not get into that issue'. Mat kar is basically his only and biggest contribution to my writing career.”
In her 15 years as an author, Twinkle has written several books like Mrs Funnybones, Mrs Funnybones Returns, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, Pyjamas Are Forgiving and Welcome to Paradise.