“I’m from a queer generation that couldn’t wait to grow up”: Santanu Bhattacharya, author of Deviants

In an Indiranagar coffee-shop blasting Dua Lipa hits, even before our double-shots of espresso arrive, the 43-year-old London-based author Santanu Bhattacharya quickly tells us that he has a fond history with Bengaluru. For example, in arriving at Vivaan’s voice — “a mix of sass and vulnerability” — he found inspiration and took courage from the adolescent protagonist’s tone in Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Channelling Vivaan in his own words, through voice notes, was always part of the novel’s initial idea because, “I wanted to hear directly from this character,” says Bhattacharya. A hundred hidden things In following through with Vivaan’s voice, Bhattacharya found that he couldn’t bring his own “cares and worries” into the telling. It allowed him to contrast Vivaan’s ease with his sexuality and identity with the restrictions of the two older gay characters “who aren’t in positions to tell us their stories themselves”.