I'll go to any lengths for maximum reach: Chetan Bhagat at Zee JLF

Bestselling writer Chetan Bhagat's session saw a packed crowd at the Char Bagh venue of the Diggi Palace at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival. The audience included many young fans of the author, several holding his books in their hand hoping for an autograph. The session titled "The Spinner of Tales" was moderated by Meru Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Literary Publishing at Random House India.

Bhagat began the session by taking photos of the audience on his phone, asking one side of the audience "laugh like I said something funny" and the other half to "nod your heads like I said something insightful." In the ensuing discussion Bhagat touched upon his writing, his critics and the need for gender equality. "Women are not just daughters and wives and mothers. They're human beings first," he said.

Bhagat said to a rousing applause from the audience.The session saw a montage of Bhagat's female characters play on screen. Bhagat talked of gender and politics in his writing, "I try to write my female characters as fictional role models of sorts. So a girl picking up a book in rural India can look at it and see that she doesn't have to be good or right all the time. She can make mistakes. When you show women in pop culture as taking charge and being ambitious, that is also political. When in a book you write about a girl fighting with her family about her education, that is political."

Bhagat did however clarify that he would not joining politics. "You will see me be political but you will not see me in politics," he said.

Even as his books are adapted into blockbusters films, Bhagat remains wary of Bollywood. Bhagat said he followed the advice he received from music director- AR Rahman, 'Keep one foot in, Keep one foot out'. "Bollywood is my first half girlfriend," Bhagat added.

As the discussion veered towards his critics, Bhagat elicited laughter as he said, "Some of them are in the audience today." While he was open to valid criticism, Bhagat admits to taking a few years to come to terms with his critics. "If you don't get too taken by praise, you won't get taken with criticism," he said.

On his writing, Bhagat asserted that he wanted his books to reach the masses, "I'll do anything for reach. I want to reach people and entertain them. Once I have their attention I can talk about changes that need to place in our society."

Despite the success his books have seen, Bhagat said writing was still hard work, "It's still hard to write and requires a lot of practice." For young writers in the audience he emphasised the need for clarity in thought while they wrote and ended with the advice, "Just keep reading books."