Biography Writer in Mumbai
I live here. I can be at your father’s house in Malabar Hill on Tuesday, or in Coimbatore on Thursday.
Most of the ghostwriting sold in India is sold by the word, by a company, through a roster. I am one writer in Mumbai who takes one book at a time and writes it himself.
Twenty-two years of writing. An authorised biography of a doyen of the Indian IT industry. A published novel in screenplay development. Five short film co-productions. An MBA from MDI Gurgaon and years running communications for large Indian corporates. That last part matters more than it sounds, because it is where you learn how a founder’s story lands in an industry that will read it.
Being in the room
Every other page on this site is about working across time zones with families abroad. This page is the opposite case.
When the subject is in India and so am I, the work gets better. Interviews happen in his house, at his desk, with his ledgers on the table and his brother dropping in unannounced, which is where the best material arrives. I can go to the village. I can sit in the first factory. I can meet the man who lent him the money in 1981 and is now 88 and will not be doing video calls.
None of that can be replicated over a screen, and for founder biographies it is often the difference between a book and a very good transcript.
Where I work
Mumbai and Pune are a car ride. Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad are a flight, and I schedule interviews in blocks so a founder gives me three days rather than twenty scattered hours. Tier-two cities, where a great many Indian business families actually built the thing, are part of the job and not an inconvenience.
What Indian families commission
The founder’s authorised biography
Written while he is here to argue with it. The version that includes the partner who left and the product that failed, which is the version worth having.
The business family history
Three or four generations, the split, the succession, the firm. Commissioned most often when the next generation is taking over.
The parents’ book, commissioned from abroad
A son in New Jersey or Melbourne pays for it, and I sit with his father in Ludhiana. The most common single shape of my work.
The grandparents’ oral history
Partition, the crossing, the first shop. The generation that has this is nearly gone and this work has a real deadline.
The coffee-table commemorative
A company anniversary or a milestone birthday, done properly rather than by a design agency filling pages around photographs.
On price, plainly
I am more expensive than an Indian ghostwriting shop and I am going to say why rather than pretend the comparison does not exist.
Published Indian rates run about Rs 2 a word, which puts a 50,000-word book near Rs 1,00,000. At that rate the writer must produce many books a year, which means a roster, a brief, and speed. It is a real service and for some books it is the correct choice, and I will say so on a call.
My engagements start at $2,500 and full books are scoped after a first conversation. What you get for the difference is one writer, six to twelve months, thirty to fifty hours of interviews conducted by the person writing the book, and the same name on the contract as on the manuscript.
Confidentiality, which matters more here
Indian business families are small worlds. Everybody knows somebody. An NDA is signed before any story is shared, and the material sits with one writer rather than a roster, an editor, a project manager and a transcription vendor. I have never disclosed a client’s private material, not a detail, not a name, without written consent.
Begin a conversation See the authorised biography work
Questions Indian clients ask
Are you available for in-person interviews in India?
Yes. I am based in Mumbai. Pune is a drive, the major cities are a flight, and I schedule in blocks so a founder gives me three concentrated days rather than twenty scattered hours.
How much does a biography writer in India cost?
Indian shops publish about Rs 2 a word, roughly Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 a book. My engagements start at $2,500 and full books are scoped after a first conversation. The difference buys one named writer for six to twelve months instead of a roster.
Can the interviews be in Hindi?
Yes, and in whatever mix the subject thinks in. The manuscript is delivered in English unless you want otherwise, and it keeps the register of the person who told it.
Do you write in Hindi or other Indian languages?
I write in English. For a Hindi or regional-language edition I work with a translator I trust and stay involved so the voice survives the crossing. Say it at the start, because it changes how the English is written.
Will you travel to the village or the first factory?
Yes, and I push for it. Rooms hold detail that interviews do not reach. Some of the best pages in a founder biography come from an afternoon standing where it started.
Can you write a company anniversary book?
Yes, when it is a real book rather than captions around photographs. The good ones are built on interviews with the people who were there in the hard years, including the ones who left.
I can be in the room this month.
Tell me who the book is about and where he is. I respond within 48 hours.