Kersi Khambatta was a sailor for 23 years, until the itch to write became too urgent to ignore. He wrote the screenplays for the critically acclaimed movies, Being Cyrus (2006) and Finding Fanny (2014). His debut novel The Village of Pointless Conversation (2016) made the Tata Lit Fest Long List for First Book Award. While writing novels remain his main motive for waking up every day, he has written numerous shows for multiple streaming platforms: Akoori (2018, for Zee 5); Class (2022, the successful Indian adaptation of the hit Spanish show Elite for Netflix India); and a forthcoming hacker/spy show for Lionsgate India. Kersi’s new novel, tentatively titled Kingdom of Lies, is a crackling, sprawling family saga set in the drug-fuelled, gang-riddled, communally charged Bombay of the 1990s, and is being represented by A Suitable Agency.