New Delhi:
Kiran Nagarkar, noted novelist and playwright, known for his books 'Cuckold,' and 'Bedtime Story', died at a hospital in Mumbai on Thursday night. He was 77. Nagarkar had been ailing for some time and was admitted to the hospital in south Mumbai where he died in the night, hospital sources said. A Sahitya Akademi Award winner, Nagarkar had been sick for some time and was admitted to a hospital in south Mumbai. Among his most known works are ''Saat Sakkam Trechalis'' (Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974), ''Ravan and Eddie'' (1994) and the epic English novel ''Cuckold'' (1997), for which he was honoured with the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award.
Nagarkar's novel ''The Extras'', which is a sequel to ''Ravan and Eddie'', traces the adult lives of Ravan and Eddie as extras in Bollywood. It was released in late January 2012. Completing the trilogy, Nagarkar released ''Rest in Peace: Ravan & Eddie'' in 2015.
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Apart from his stellar literary career, Nagarkar was known for voicing his opinion on general issues. He once wrote an open letter to BMC commissioner over issue of public transport. “…almost every major city in the world public transportation has always been subsidised. That’s the only way the poorest of the poor who live in slums as well as those who belong to the lowest rungs of the middle class can afford to travel to work, and that too only when fares are reasonable,” Nagarkar said in the open letter in 2018.
He also had his share of controversies. Sometime in 2018, three women had alleged Nagarkar of behaving inappropriately with them.
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Nagarkar issued a statement denying the allegations. He said, “Forgive me for not responding earlier to the women journalists who have accused me of sexual impropriety on Twitter. The news came as a complete shock to me. It took me time to try and digest the tweets. I unequivocally deny these allegations of sexual impropriety which go against the heart of my character and everything I stand for. I have never engaged in any such behaviour with anyone.
“I must stress that I do not wield any power or authority that would allow me to harm or hamper a professional journalistic career. Let me end by saying that long before the ‘me too’ movement came to the fore I have always strongly supported women who have been subjected to any kind of mistreatment. All my novels and plays are witness to my intense concern for the plight of women in today’s time.”
(With agency inputs)
