Exclusive| Int Dog Day: Soha and Kunal to co-author children’s books

Actors Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu are compiling a series of three children’s books titled Inni and Bobo, which will be published by Penguin. The story of the series is inspired from their three-year-old daughter Inaaya’s love for stories and animals.

They have shared space in reel life as actors and in real life as partners and parents. And now, Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu are soon going to share credits as authors! The two are compiling a series of three children’s books titled Inni and Bobo. And the character of the protagonist, Inni is based on their three-year-old daughter Inaaya, whose love for stories inspired the two to explore a young child’s love for animals especially puppies, in the upcoming book.

Soha Ali Khan earlier wrote her memoir, and the new series of books will see Kunal Kemmu’s debut as an author.

Khan, who earlier wrote her memoir, The Perils of Being Moderately Famous (2017), has taken to writing for young readers for the first time, and informs that though the book will be “descriptive and evocative”, she has “consciously tried to avoid being metaphorical” because she believes that for children’s books, “the writing style needs to be more literal to be understood”. And though this book marks Kemmu’s debut as an author, he “never really felt any pressure”.

In his childhood, Kemmu reveals, he “wasn’t much of a reader”, and loved hearing and visualising stories more than reading them. “My dad, nani, masi, mother and everybody used to tell me a lot of stories, and I enjoyed how they told a story in different ways, which would add to the romance of how I would imagine it... Soha reads a lot of stories to Inaaya, but I like to make up stories for her. In fact my favourite thing is to tell Inaaya to give me three or four characters that she wants in a story and where she wants them, and I then make up a story for her. I can see the wonder in her eyes when I tell her these tales. And that’s how this book happened. This one story that I imagined and told her, she really liked it and then Soha helped put it together.”

Inaaya Naumi Kemmu shares a loving bond with her pet, and other adopted animals, at Pataudi.

Khan recalls the time when her husband acted as a soundboard while she was penning her memoir and describes his then received feedback as “incredibly useful”. So, has it been easy or difficult to work with Kemmu as a co-author and not a co-actor? “I think Kunal and I make a great team, in life as well as in writing,” quips Khan, adding, “The very germ of the idea as well as the storyline for the first two books came from Kunal. He wrote the one liner, as we call it for scripts in the film industry, and I fleshed it out, dressed it up, and made it pleasing to the eye! It is open to debate — and we often do debate — who has contributed more towards the books, but the truth of the matter is they (the books) wouldn’t have been possible without the both of us.”

Often bringing up a child makes one relive one’s own childhood. And come to think of reading as a habit in their childhood, and the two share quite different perspectives. While Khan was an “avid reader” as a child and found “seldom without a book in hand”, Kemmu says he took to reading “much later in life”. “I wasn’t much of a reader (as a child)... I used to enjoy audio-visual form of watching stories rathe than listening to them. But obviously, later in life I did read a lot of books and realised that I have a vivid imagination and that’s why I’m a slow reader,” says Kemmu, whereas Khan recalls her longlist of writers, “Some favourites when I was very young were Dr Seuss, Eric Carle, Shel Silverstein, Margaret Wise Brown. Both my parents would read to me and then when I was a little older and could read myself, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, O Henry and A A Milne among others... And today, we are truly spoilt for choice - books, e-books audio books, read aloud books - politically correct books with diversity, inclusion, empowerment and the right message... We have it all, and just need to know where to look!”

So are there plans to write more books? “May be more in future,” says Kemmu, revealing how he’s close to animals and works for the cause of strays. “As a kid, I used to be very scared of dogs and never thought I would want one or have one. But, as I grew up, my fondness for animals and dogs really grew... Masti is the first pet I have; she’s more like a daughter to me because she came into my life in 2008, and it was the first time I was completely responsible for this life that I had to take care of. I’ve completely cherished all the time that I’ve spent with her. I do try to encourage people to adopt and we’ve also adopted and fostered strays in the past, and even now we have them in Delhi.”

On the occasion of International Dog Day, Kemmu says, “It’s always an emotional experience when you see an injured or an orphaned animal, but there are some people out there who are on the ground doing much more to help these animals and spread awareness. So I’m very happy and glad to be in a position where I’m able to be of some kind of help to make that happen, and facilitate it in a better way.”

Author tweets @HennaRakheja

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