Tag Archives: Nishat Fatima – Editor-Harper’s Bazaar India

Nishat Fatima says her first book had to be a romance

Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

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Seriously, Sitara? is a tale of an unlikely romance between a Bollywood star and an art editor

Sitara, a 30-year-old high-headed arts editor of a magazine is thrown off balance when asked to interview the dashing, reclusive actor Nasser Khan. She hopes it will be a one-off interview and she’ll have nothing to do with showbiz-types again. But fate has other plans.

From being boringly single, Sitara suddenly has two suitors set up by parents and a Bollywood Khan vying for her attention.

Nishat Fatima, the Hyderabad-bred and now Delhi-based author’s debut novella, Seriously, Sitara? (Hachette India; Rs. 299) is a witty story of relationships told through a series of unbelievable yet interesting incidents. A self-confessed reader of romances by Jennifer Crusie, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, the early Nora Roberts, Susan Napier and Jayne Ann Krentz, Nishat says her first book had to be a romance. Excerpts from an interview with Nishat, who now serves as editor, Harper’s Bazaar :

There have been quite a few books by Indian authors exploring the lives of single women in a big city. Were you conscious of this while writing Seriously, Sitara? There’s a hint of Bridget Jones’ quality to Sitara…

I think it’s simply that stories in India have moved to an urban setting, which basically means that if your protagonist is female and single you can categorise it as single woman in the city. I was clear from the start that I was writing a rom-com. However, if you consider chick lit, there is often the device of making your heroine a little bit clumsy, and I plead guilty to that.

Sitara is a feisty, intelligent journalist who doesn’t get swayed by the glamour of the Hindi film industry and gives the poster-boy Nasser Khan a drubbing. How did you go about shaping up Sitara’s character traits?

I’d started out basing Sitara on a couple of friends from college. But by chapter three, Sitara started to do her own thing, then by the time we came to the last draft, she was her own person. (Clichéd, but true.)

You narrate the insecurities and fickle relationships of the film industry like an insider. How much of it was from your experience of interviewing film personalities?

Well, I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for actors to give me interviews! But I have to admit that the starting point about the insecurities of actors came from a magazine article written by an actor (anonymously) about why he stopped dating plastic perfection.

That set me thinking about actors and what they must go through. I also watched a couple of movies, though didn’t manage to crack open the box set of Entourage. When I was interviewing actors I was far too concerned about making deadlines to think about anything except how soon they would give me an interview.

Nasser Khan, as you’ve portrayed him, wants to stay closer to real people. The wily, back-biting ways of the film industry are not for him. Did you want Nasser to be this way so that it makes it easier for him to be drawn to someone like Sitara?

I have to admit that Sitara had very little to do with Nasser’s character. It was all his mother’s doing. As soon as she appeared, I fell in love with her, and figured her son would be a little different.

How long did it take you to write this story?

Four years, five drafts, and many, many cups of adrak chai .

You’ve written considerably on fashion and specialised in photography; so a romance with Bollywood comes as a surprise. Was this story the first story you wanted to write?

It was. I have read so many romances over the years that there was no doubt at all that my first book would be one. However, my coffee table book on 25 years of Suneet Varma did come out earlier this year, so my fashion leanings have been served too.

What’s next?

I’m kicking around a couple of ideas. Right now, though I’m just enjoying the coming out of ‘Seriously, Sitara?’

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National / by Sangeetha Devi Dundoo / July 22nd, 2013

Jetsetter of the Week: Nishat Fatima

As one of India’s best known and best loved editors, we have always admired Nishat Fatima’s chic style. Intrigued by how she copes with the incessant travel schedules especially around fashion weeks, we asked her how she likes to travel

It’s a widely accepted fact that all Hyderabadis — all eight million residents, and their diaspora that spreads across the world — are somehow, inevitably, connected to each other. So I don’t know why I was so surprised when I showed my grandmother a fabulous article on Hyderabad in Condé Nast Traveller a few years ago only to have her glance at the byline and remark, “Oh, Nishat Fatima, that’s my friend’s daughter.” I’ve been in touch with Nishat ever since, and am in awe of her talent.

Since our first encounter, when she was a freelance writer contributing to countless publications including the aforementioned Conde Nast TravellerKhaleej Times Dubai, and BBC Good Food, she’s now the editor of one of my favourite magazines, Harper’s Bazaar India. She’s also written two books, one an award winning coffee table book documenting 25 years of the Indian couturier Suneet Varma, and the other a work of fiction called Seriously, Sitara?

We caught up with Nishat in between fashion weeks to get her travel picks:

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Occupation: Editor, Harper’s Bazaar India

Hometown: Hyderabad

Currently lives in: New Delhi

Just back from: Mumbai. From fashion week

Next stop: Paris. For fashion week

The one place I’m dying to go that I can’t believe I haven’t been to yet: Spain. Love everything about it, had two opportunities and cannot believe I missed both.

I plan for a trip by:

a) scouring every guidebook and travel website there is

b) learning a few key phrases in the local language

c) asking my friends for tips

d) Planning? What planning? I like to wing it.

Nishat says: D. Absolutely!

My top five packing essentials: Hand cream, tissue, chap stick, iPad, camera

Carry-on or check in? Why carry-on when you can check in. Especially, if I’m lugging all the things I didn’t think I could manage without.

I always keep _______ close at hand on the plane.  A high-necked jacket. Shawls are too fiddly.

On the plane I…

a) read books

b) watch movies

c) pass out before takeoff

Nishat says: Watch movies. But there’s always a back-up book. Or two. Just in case.

My travel beauty regimen: Lots of water, juice, and regular applications of moisturiser and hand cream

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My sartorial necessities: Comfortable shoes, and pants and a soft, full-sleeved cotton T-shirt

The first thing I do when I arrive at my destination: Shower, change and hit the street.

If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be: Melbourne

The city you couldn’t pay me to go back to: Dubai

I travel to:

a) Sight-see

b) Shop till I drop

c) Eat

d) Get my culture fix

e) Relax

Nishat says: All of the above. I’m a bit obsessive. I like to pack in as many things as possible into a trip.

My travel style is:

a) don’t-miss-a-thing

b) go-with-the-flow

Nishat says: A in my intentions, B in reality

Travel pet peeve: multiple security checks in the same airport.

The best hotel I’ve ever laid my head at: The Dorchester, London

The ultimate hotel amenity: Fluffy bathrobes. I remember one I could have spent the rest of my life in.

The most memorable meal of my life was at: Hong Kong, my first taste of real Sichuan food. Amazing. And totally different from anything I’d eaten in India

My kind of souvenir: Shoes. I’ve never been on a trip on which I didn’t buy shoes.

Earliest travel memory: A trip to Shimla. I remember a lot of snow.

Best travel memory: Three weeks in Melbourne on a holiday with friends in 2007.

Craziest travel experience: A trip to Geneva, in which I was stranded in Frankfurt on the way to, spent a night at the airport, and then fell sick on the flight back.

source: http://www.popxo.com / POPXO / Home / by Sarah Khan, Guest Contributor / Sunday – September 22nd, 2014