Comedian Kanan Gill: 'I’ve had many novels sputter and die in notebooks and on hard disks'

Kanan Gill's debut novel, Acts of God, was published by HarperCollins in January 2024.

Kanan Gill has been writing and performing standup comedy for more than a decade. He explores new creative territory with his debut novel Acts of God (HarperCollins India, 2024), which brings together his love for science, detective fiction, and comedy. He spoke to Moneycontrol about the book, his writing process, and other projects:

When did you know that you wanted to write a book?

I started writing stories for fun when I was a child, since my parents flatly refused to buy us video games. I’d write something and my sister—who used to enjoy playing class teacher—would write ‘v.good’ on them and assign marks out of 10. I decided to write novels when I was a teenager, when both reading and writing became a larger part of my life. I had nothing to show at the time other than the odd prize for English I’d get in school. Since then, I’ve had many novels sputter and die in notebooks and hard disks. For many years the scale of a novel was too overwhelming to contemplate; it would slip out of my hands a few chapters in. But I kept writing in private, hoping I’d know when it was time when I was confident enough to see a novel through till then end. That happened suddenly, around the time I turned 30.

In Acts of God, you write, “Stories past their expiry date cause indigestion, nervousness and the rapid precipitation of strong opinions.” How was your writing process?

I opted for the gardener approach, where I began with the seed of the idea and let it unfold. The months I wrote it were some of the best in my life, so I look back on the process with nothing but fondness. As it took nearly three years from the first draft for it to be released, many things I wrote about have come to pass. That’s a little annoying because the novel could’ve been prescient in some aspect. I suppose it’s timely but far from any expiry date.

Debut novels often draw heavily from the author’s life. How true is this for you?

I didn’t make any conscious effort to fictionalise my personality or life in any way. I think the setting and tone of the novel will make that quite clear. But emotional seepage is impossible to prevent. Now with some distance from the novel, I’m fascinated to see that I have forced these poor characters to deal with problems that perhaps I was ignoring at the time.

Also read: Dear reader: With Acts of God, Kanan Gill becomes the latest author to address us

How did your characters come into being? Which ones were the most fun to write?

P. Manjunath was my initial favourite. I love detective fiction, but I think my mode of expression is too wild for it to resemble the genre in any way. Manjunath is an absurd, inexplicable character. I think in the blurb he’s mentioned as ‘vacuous’, but that vacuum is not of intelligence but of the oppression of having to make logical sense. A little into writing, I began to favour the narrator who shares my voice in a large way. I developed a lot of compassion for each character, and so they all insisted on filling out their dimensions.

Who are your favourite detectives in literature and cinema? Which of those characters inspired you in the process of creating detective P. Manjunath for your book?

I think I have some idealised notion of a film noir detective that doesn’t actually exist. I think there are more homages than actual source material there, so some notion of the sepia-tinted heavy-smoking post-war high-waisted trench coat-wearing indefatigable, guarded, solitary forms all turned on its head is the basis for P. Manjunath.

The narrator in Acts of God says, “Science and theology share in common a search for truth. Theology believes they’ve discovered it; science demands that you show your working. Which of these paths do you prefer?" Could comedy be seen as a third path?

Science, but not only science. I don’t advocate woo-woo mysticism, but there are several schools of thought thousands of years old that seek and offer a freedom from suffering, and it would be silly to write them off. Whether your answers are housed in some divinity or mode of thinking, it’s some denial of the spirit not to at least reach out and look. Comedy at its purest is an expression of lightness, of not being weighed down by circumstance, and some of the wisest people around are very funny. However, the converse is also very very true.

With stand-up comedy, you get to interact directly with the audience and see if a joke is working or not. This doesn’t happen with a novel. How did you approach this challenge?

I didn’t approach the book with any tonal goal in mind, so I wouldn’t characterise it as just a humorous book. Standup is highest-risk high-reward. You put yourself out there and get instant adulation or public embarrassment. With writing, I feel a tremendous freedom and the opportunity to express myself in all the ways that don’t require the audience to laugh every 7 seconds. Your failures are private, and you can simply delete them. On the flip-side, the validation takes a very very long time to come. I have a reasonably strong instinct for what is funny and what isn’t, but for what feeling the book as a whole invokes, I placed the first draft in the hands of the most avid readers I know for their feedback.

It was a surprise to see you in the Norwegian romantic comedy 'Christmas as Usual'. How did you end up doing that project? Tell us about some memorable experiences.

I was surprised they asked me to be in it! It was an oddly serendipitous thing. The producers were looking to cast for the role of Jashan, and someone had mentioned my name so they had reached out to ask if I’d be interested. I was doing a show in Oslo that very week, so I could meet Petter (Holmsen), who wrote and directed it! There’s a small scene in the movie where my character jumps into a hole in a frozen lake. I really did that, and I now know how every ice cube in every drink feels. We did two takes and filmed for nearly a minute while I was flailing around in the water. It was horrible and I would definitely do it again.

You are going to perform at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024. What are the new things that audiences can look forward to in your shows?

This is my fourth stand-up comedy special. I’m trying to keep it light and silly. However, it seems like it’s pushing to become a show about satisfaction and how it’s always out of reach.

Tell us a little about your next novel, and when it is likely to be out.

I’ve got two in the can: a comedy-horror book set in a tea estate, and an epic fantasy that keeps growing larger every time I revise it. I’d love for it to be out next year, but I’m touring all year, so I don’t know exactly when I’ll get to tighten things up and deliver the book.