驻印度新德里记者
印度有14亿人口，幅员辽阔，但名人却不多——基本上都是宝莱坞明星，儿童读物市场也很小。不过现实情况却是，越来越多的印度名人正在为孩子们写书。
知名电影制片人卡伦·乔哈尔（Karan Johar）写过一本《小爱的大想法》（Big Thoughts of Little Luv）；著名政治家马内卡·甘地（Maneka Gandhi）写过《我床底下有个怪物》（There is a Monster Under My Bed）；女演员索哈·阿里·汗（Soha Ali Khan）和丈夫库纳尔·卡穆（Kunal Khemu）合著了《伊尼和波波的故事》（Inni and Bobo）系列丛书，向小读者讲解养宠物需要承担的责任；另一位银幕巨星阿莉娅·巴特（Alia Bhatt）也在创作一本儿童读物。
这些名人的独特之处在于，是他们自己的亲身经历促使他们拿起了笔。企鹅兰登书屋童书营销部门负责人曼西·谢蒂（Mansi Shetty）介绍说：“写作这件事与他们所处的人生阶段有关——在怀孕期间（例如阿莉娅·巴特），或是已经为人父母。要是自己的孩子喜欢他们讲的故事，他们就会想，其他孩子可能也会喜欢吧。”例如，索哈·阿里·汗编了个故事，讲给女儿听，她女儿显然会问：“你干嘛不把故事里的人物画出来让我看看呢？”于是，汗给这个故事配上了插图，并集结成书。
© Courtesy of Bloomsbury India / Vikas Khanna Group
双刃剑
一些公众人物在儿童读物领域取得了巨大的成功。苏达·默蒂（Sudha Murty）是印度国内最畅销的童书作家之一，她既非演员、模特，也不是电影导演，而是软件业巨头印孚瑟斯（Infosys）创始人纳拉亚纳·默蒂（Narayana Murthy）的妻子。
苏达·默蒂成为公众人物，一方面是由于她是英国首相里希·苏纳克（Rishi Sunak）的岳母，另一方面则是由于她撰写的自传和儿童读物。苏达是在当了祖母之后开始写作的，她的书大受欢迎，其中一本《奶奶的故事口袋》（Grandma’s Bag of Stories）在2021年一年就卖出了97000册。她希望向孙辈们讲述自己小时候听过的关于家庭、分享和文化的那些故事。
“有些家长可能会对名人写的书感兴趣”
新德里“闭环”书店经理普里扬卡·马尔霍特拉（Priyanka Malhotra）认为，幼儿自然不受名人光环的影响，不过他们的父母很可能被名人吸引，继而买下名人写的书。不过马尔霍特拉也表示，凡事有利有弊：“有些家长会心存疑虑，认为某人可能是个好演员，但可能不是好作家，他们更愿意选择知名作家的作品。”
口碑
书商们明白，名人地位再高，也不及内容重要。马尔霍特拉说：“假如故事内容欠佳，家长们就不会通过口口相传把这本书推荐给别人，他们会选择比较可靠的国内外作家。在我看来，读者对于名人作者并没有什么特殊的兴趣，他们想要的是一本好书。”
出版商的想法也是如此。他们表示，一本书能否出版完全取决于该书质量如何。要是质量不过关，名气再大也无济于事。成功的作者找到的话题能够让为人父母者产生共鸣。家长与幼儿商量要不要养一只小狗，索哈·阿里·汗讲述养宠物的利与弊的那本书就是他们此时的最佳拍档。
“要是书籍质量不过关，名气再大也无济于事”
马内卡·甘地的《我床底下有个怪物》告诉家长，有一些方法可以帮助孩子们克服常见的恐惧心理，例如害怕被遗弃或是怕黑。甘地对前来采访她的人说，不妨以轻松的态度直面这些问题。有一次，小孙女凑到甘地耳边小声嘀咕，有个怪物睡在她床底下，甘地对此只说了一句：“你真走运，我也想要个怪物呢。”
名厨维卡斯·康纳（Vikas Khanna）写过一本故事书《神奇的擀面杖》（The Magic Rolling Pin），他为孩子们写了一本关于烹饪的新书，即将出版。这同样也是家长关注的题材。
名人出书渐成潮流，但出版商心里很清楚，这些明星作者不可能颠覆深受全世界儿童热爱的那些国际著名作家。名人的书确实有新意，但会经久不衰吗？还是留给时间来证明吧。
India, celebrities are picking up their pens
Like former American President Barack Obama, actress Natalie Portman and Meghan Markle, wife of Prince Harry, a growing number of famous Indians are breaking into children’s books. But a famous name is not enough to sell a book; a quality story remains the key to success.
Amrit Dhillon
Journalist in New Delhi, India
Despite a population of 1.4 billion people, the number of celebrities in this immense country is tiny – mostly confined to Bollywood stars – and the market for children’s books is also small. Yet the phenomenon is real: more and more celebrities in India are writing books for children.
Famous filmmaker Karan Johar has written Big Thoughts of Little Luv. Well-known politician Maneka Gandhi has written There is a Monster Under My Bed. Actress Soha Ali Khan and her husband Kunal Khemu have published the Inni and Bobo series which explains the responsibilities involved in having a pet. Another top actress, Alia Bhatt, is working on a children’s book.
What is striking about these celebrities is that the impetus to write stems from their own experiences. “The writing is linked to their personal phase of life – either they are pregnant (Alia Bhatt) or have become parents. If their own child likes a story they have related, they start thinking that maybe other children will enjoy it too,” said Mansi Shetty, who heads the children’s marketing division at Penguin Random House. For example, when Khan recited a story she had made up, her daughter’s obvious question was “why can’t I see the characters?” The answer was for Khan to have the story illustrated and published.
A double-edged sword
Some public figures have become huge successes in this field. One of the top-selling children’s authors in the country is Sudha Murty who is not an actress, model or film director, but the wife of Narayana Murthy, founder of the software giant Infosys.
Murty has become a public person for being the mother-in-law of British prime minister Rishi Sunak, and for the books she’s written about her life and her children’s books. She began writing her wildly popular books including Grandma’s Bag of Stories, which sold 97,000 copies in 2021, when she became a grandmother. She wanted to tell her grandchildren stories she had been told as a child, around the themes of family, sharing, and culture.
"Some parents may be interested in books written by famous people"
Priyanka Malhotra, director of Full Circle bookshop in New Delhi, says that while young children are not going to be influenced by a celebrity’s status, the parents might well be intrigued enough to buy the book. But this can work both ways, she says. “Some parents will be sceptical, thinking that an actor may be a good actor but no good as a writer, and they will prefer to stick to established authors.”
Word of mouth
Booksellers are clear that celebrity status cannot trump content. “If the story isn’t up to the mark, parents will not recommend it by word of mouth and they’ll stick to the tried and tested authors, Indian and foreign. I am not seeing any special demand for celebrity authors. The demand is for good books. Period,” said Malhotra.
Likewise with publishers. They say their decision to publish or not rests entirely on the quality of the story. If the quality does not measure up, no amount of stratospheric fame is going to make a difference.
“If the quality of the story does not measure up, no level of fame will make a difference”
Successful authors have managed to find topics that resonate with parents and parenthood. Khan’s book about the pros and cons of having a pet is a perfect accompaniment to a discussion with a young child on whether to get a puppy. Similarly, Gandhi’s There is a Monster Under My Bed offered solutions to parents with children struggling with common fears such as fear of abandonment and fear of the dark. As Gandhi told interviewers, she suggested confronting the issues head on, with a light touch. When her own granddaughter whispered into her ear that a monster was sleeping under her bed, Gandhi simply replied: “That’s so lucky. I also want one.
On the same note – books tackling what will appeal to parents – celebrity chef Vikas Khanna, who has already written the story The Magic Rolling Pin, is coming out soon with a book for children on cooking.
Though the trend seems to be catching on, publishers are quite clear that celebrity authors are unlikely to topple the international names loved by children all over the world. They have novelty value, true, but staying power? Time will tell.
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