Mystery, Romantic, suspense, fiction
Dr. ManjiriPrabhu holds a Doctorate in Communication Science and is an independent film-maker for Television, a Writer/ Novelist in English and also the Founder/ Director of a Literary Festival. She has directed over 200 children's TV programmes, more than 50 short fiction and travel films and has authored 15 books.
Her unpublished psychological thriller novel was adapted into a Hindi feature film by NFDC, titled KuchhDil Ne Kaha. Her thesis, converted into a book, titled Roles: Reel and Real, has become a rare reference book for students of Hindi cinema. Prabhu has been acknowledged as a pioneer in India among women writers of mystery fiction, and she has a diverse global fan following. She is also the first female mystery Author to be published outside India and has been labelled as the 'Desi Agatha Christie'. And much recently, Prabhu has been acknowledged to be a 'match for Dan Brown' by Dr. ShashiTharoor.
She has been invited to reputed International Literature Festivals like the Agatha Christie Festival, UK and International Women Fiction Writers, Matera, Italy. Her novels 'The Cosmic Clues' was selected as a Killer Book, by Independent Mystery Booksellers of America and 'The Astral Alibi' was honoured as a 'Notable Book' in the Kiriyama Prize. Her books have been published by varied reputed publishers like Penguin, Bloomsbury, Random House USA, Jaico Books, Rupa Publications and Times Group Books.
As the Founder/ Director of Pune International Literary Festival, Prabhu has brought Pune city on the International map of Literature and Arts festivals. She believes that literature heals and is a prerequisite to a peaceful society.
She has recently been chosen as one of 50 Inspiring Women of Maharashtra and has been awarded for 'Excellence in Writing' by ERTC Global Herald, in Mumbai. As well been awarded the Rex Karmaveer Gold Medal Award. She is also an animal welfare activist promoting caring and adoption of stray dogs. @manjiriprabhu
After a very warm welcome to one of the most celebrated authors of the country Dr Manjiri Prabhu and moderator Mr Dipankar Mukherjee, the session gets underway. Without wasting any time, Mr Mukherjee cuts to the chase right away and requests Dr Prabhu to give the viewers an insight into her story, Dr Prabhu starts with how she was very fascinated by books as a child and knew at that very moment that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Dr Prabhu goes on to talk about how she has always felt that her destiny was always to be a writer. Then she goes on to talk about how the suspense thriller and children’s genres played an important role in helping her pick her preferred genre. Mr Mukherjree in a very curious question asks Dr Prabhu how she manages two starkly different genres and if she set up two different systems to keep them different. As the session rolls on, Dr Prabhu helps the viewers get a deeper insight into how she maintains her creativity and what it’s like to be a writer in general. Mr Mukherjee does an excellent job of bringing her story out in the best possible way. With a few more questions back and forth, the session comes to a close.