Now, A Book On Arjun's Mom

TV writer Gajra Kottary has chronicled several elements of Arjun Kapoor's (late) mother Mona's life

Popular TV show Balika Vadhu's writer Gajra Kottary has written a book Once Upon A Star based (loosely) on Arjun Kapoor's mother, (late) Mona Kapoor. The book is expected to hit the stands tomorrow (December 16). 



When contacted, Gajra confirmed and said, "Once Upon A Star is loosely inspired by Mona Kapoor’s life, but it is not Mona's story per se. I was fascinated by her life. Also, I like to write about crumbling relationships. Doesn't the medium (TV) I work in dwell upon such issues in most serials?"

Elaborating on her book, Gajra said, "My hero is not a film producer but the first son of a film family. His parents adore his wife. They have two kids (son and daughter). The wife keeps hearing rumours about his affairs. One day, she realises that he is in a very serious affair. Suddenly, the other woman's mother dies. The man steps in to take care of her and gets so close to her that he  decides to ruffle his picture-perfect joint family scenario." Quite similar to Boney Kapoor-Mona-Sridevi story.

Gajra associates with broken marriages. "I know what estranged marriages are all about. My parents stayed together but barely spoke to each other."

Did she meet Mona at any point? Did Mona know that Gajra was writing a book lifting several elements from her life, we asked? "No, we never met. But we were very good friends on Facebook. She even followed my work and encouraged me a lot."

But the Once Upon A Star author wishes that she had met Mona, at least once. "I knew Mona was unwell, but I didn't know the details about her illness. Then suddenly one day I came across her pics on Facebook wherein I saw she had partied. So, I thought she had recovered. Two months later, she passed away (March 25, 2012)."

Did Mona ever tell her the hurt and pain she underwent when Boney left her for Sridevi? "No. But she told me how she had struggled to be a good single parent to her two kids (Arjun, Anshula). What amazed was how the film industry silently reached out to her and how she fought back to become a woman of resilience. She told me that people from Bollywood helped her to make her strong. What a great amount of goodwill she had!"

Once Upon A Star was supposed to see the light of day in 2016. "But destiny had other plans. When the editor of my what would have been my second book learnt that I had Once Upon A Star in mind as one of my latter books, she advised that I should change my plan."

"I have several other elements in the story and the book ends with the protagonist finding love. I have plans to write the second part of Once Upon A Star, but whether I would or not depends on how the first part is received," Gajra concluded.

Gajra debuted as an author in early 1996 with her first collection of women-centric short stories titled Fragile Victories which was followed by another compendium,The Last Laugh in 2003. Her debut novel Broken Melodies was translated in Hindi as Bikhre Sur. She  entered the world of television when she wrote the story and screenplay of the serial Hamare Tumhare which was telecast on Zee TV in 2001. Her first long running serial was Astitva EkPrem Kahani which she co-wrote for Zee TV.  Her next major writing assignment was, and continues to be, Balika Vadhu. She has also recently concluded writing the story for the 55 episode mega historical serial Buddha telecast on Zee TV, produced by Dr BK Modi.