Novel on hardships of women in media

KOLKATA: If you thought that entertainment journalists only need to brush shoulders with movie stars, think again. In her debut novel — ‘Exit Interview’ — Kolkata-based journalist, Amrita Mukherjee, takes us through the life of a young, enthusiastic woman reporter and unfolds some truths about the profession that is rarely discussed in journalism classes.
The racy novel can also double up as a self-help book for the budding journalists as it is written on what Amrita saw and experienced in the 17 years of her career. Right from sexual harassment to nepotism, Rasha Roy — the protagonist — had to face it all but could barely talk about it in the exit interviews which were conducted before she resigned from several jobs.
“Rasha is a journalist with immense potential. She leaves the comforts of her home to become a journalist, but very soon she realizes that the profession is not an easy one for a stubborn rookie like herself. But she can never talk about her bitter experiences at the exit interview. She leaves the country and stumbles upon the biggest story of her life at Cairo. The novel is also about changing perspectives. Rasha asks her boyfriend to wait for a few days before they can get married because she wants to gather money to fund her own wedding,” Amrita says giving a sneak peek into her novel.
During the launch of the book on Friday at a city bookstore, actors Prosenjit Chatterjee, Sudipta Chakraborty, Koneenica Banerjee, Tota Roy Choudhury, Bobby Chakraborty and Biplab Dasgupta, couldn’t help but praise her for bringing the ‘Page 3’ culture to Kolkata.
“I remember, Amrita would call me even late at night for interviews but I would gladly give it to her because back then, very little was written about us,” recalled Prosenjit.
Rasha’s story points out that for women in media, just being qualified and hardworking is sometimes not enough.
The author revealed that a sequel is in the pipeline but also said that she might be writing another novel on the violence on Indian women, much of which she experienced during her stay in Dubai.