Samit Basu

Samit Basu (born 14 December 1979) is an Indian novelist and filmmaker whose body of work includes fantasy and superhero novels, children's books, graphic novels and short stories, and a film, House Arrest (2019 film). His next announced work is an anti-dystopian novel, Chosen Spirits, was released in ebook form on April 2020.[1][2]

Samit Basu
Born (1979-12-14) 14 December 1979
Kolkata, India
OccupationNovelist, film director
Period2004–present
GenreFantasy, science fiction, superhero, children's, rom-com
Website
samitbasu.com

He currently lives and works in Delhi and Mumbai, India.

Biography

Born 14 December 1979 in a Bengali family, Basu grew up in Calcutta, where he studied at Don Bosco School, and later Presidency College, Kolkata, where he obtained a degree in Economics. He dropped out of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to write The Simoqin Prophecies and then went on to complete a course in broadcasting and documentary filmmaking at the University of Westminster, London.

Writing

Basu is the author of the GameWorld Trilogy, The Simoqin Prophecies, The Manticore's Secret and The Unwaba Revelations, a fantasy trilogy published by Penguin Books, India. He gained worldwide presence with the Metahuman Duology, Turbulence and its sequel Resistance, a superhero novel set in India, Pakistan and England, published by Titan Books.[3] He is also the author of the Adventures of Stoob series of children's books set in Delhi, and Terror on the Titanic a YA novel. In October 2019, Basu announced his upcoming book, Chosen Spirits coming out on April 2020 on his blog.[1]

The Simoqin Prophecies, Basu's first novel, was written when he was 22 and published when he was 23. The Simoqin Prophecies, written in English, has been published in Swedish by Ordbilder, and German (from Piper Verlag). The subsequent volumes in the trilogy, The Manticore's Secret and The Unwaba Revelations were released in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

In 2010, Basu wrote a YA novel called Terror on the Titanic and the book that would eventually lead to his international breakthrough, Turbulence.

The UK publication of Turbulence in 2012 introduced Basu to the West. Turbulence opened to a series of rave reviews. Wired said "Turbulence has it all… Solid writing, great character development, humor, personal loss, and excellent points to ponder in every chapter." IGN that started a campaign for a Hollywood adaptation of this superhero novel. It also won a Wired Geekdad Goldenbot Award[4] and appeared at no.2 on the list of hot new Amazon Science Fiction titles on the week of its release. Superheronovels.com called it a contender for best superhero novel of all time. "Resistance", the sequel, was published in the UK and the US in 2013.

Since 2013, Basu has also written a series of children's books titled The Adventures of Stoob, whose protagonist is a middle-schooler in Delhi. Three books have been published so far in the series - Testing Times, A Difficult Stage and Mismatch Mayhem. All three have been illustrated by graphic artist Sunaina Coelho.

Basu is also a comics writer. His initial projects with Virgin Comics were as a writer for Shekhar Kapur's Devi (#3-#10) and The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma based on the Panchatantra. Basu also co-wrote Untouchable (comics), a graphic novel with X-Men and Lucifer writer Mike Carey[5] and went on to write UnHoli, an episodic zombie comedy set in and around New Delhi.[6] Virgin Comic's closure prevented the publication of other projects with filmmaker Terry Gilliam and pop group Duran Duran. In 2013, Basu published Local Monsters, a comic/fantasy take about six immigrant monsters living in a house in Delhi, and contributed to 18 days, a Grant Morrison take on the Mahabharata.

Direction and Screenwriting

In April 2019, Netflix announced that Basu was a co-director and writer of House Arrest, one of their new International Originals series from India.[7]

Bibliography
Title Series Publisher ISBN Publishing date
The Simoqin Prophecies The Gameworld Trilogy Penguin Books India ISBN 0-14-303043-4 2004
The Manticore's Secret The Gameworld Trilogy Penguin Books India ISBN 0-14-400067-9 2005
The Unwaba Revelations The Gameworld Trilogy Penguin Books India ISBN 0-14-310352-0 2007
Terror on the Titanic - Scholastic ISBN 978-81-8477-460-3 2010
Turbulence Turbulence Titan Books ISBN 978-1-78116-119-7 2012
Resistance Turbulence Titan Books ISBN 1781162492 2013
Testing Times The Adventures Of Stoob Red Turtle ISBN 8129132753 2014
A Difficult Stage The Adventures Of Stoob Red Turtle ISBN 8129134985 2015
Mismatch Mayhem The Adventures Of Stoob Red Turtle ISBN 8129135914 2016
Chosen Spirits - Simon & Schuster ISBN 9386797828 2020

References
  1. Basu, Samit (28 October 2019). "New Novel alert!". Samit Basu. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  2. Ghosh, Devarsi. "'If there's one successful sci-fi movie, there will be 20 more': 'House Arrest' director Samit Basu". Scroll.in. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  3. "'No poster and no flag': An interview with Samit Basu". FactorDaily. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  4. "New Superhero Novel Lets You Experience Turbulence". Wired.com. 25 September 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  5. "Carey Becomes "Untouchable" | CBR". www.cbr.com. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  6. Salkowitz, Rob (6 December 2011). "Liquid Comics Launches Digital Platform To Capture India's Pop-Culture Crazed, Mobile-Connected Youth". Fast Company. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  7. "Netflix Expands Indian Slate With 10 Original Films". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
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