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Vishal Modanwal: The Casting Director Who Has Helped Connect Thousands of Artists With the Entertainment Industry

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Mumbai, India — Over the past decade, India’s television, web series, and advertising industries have grown at a remarkable pace, opening the door to thousands of new opportunities for actors, models, and background performers across the country. Behind many of these opportunities stands a network of casting professionals who work quietly to connect fresh talent with production houses. One name that has become increasingly recognised in this space is Vishal Modanwal, a Mumbai-based casting director who has been active in the Indian entertainment industry since 2014.

Through his company, Bollywood Star Cast, Modanwal has built a reputation for reliable casting coordination and artist management, working across television serials, web series, films, music videos, advertisements, and brand campaigns. His journey reflects the growing importance of casting professionals in an industry that is expanding faster than ever, driven by the rise of OTT platforms, digital content, and brand-led entertainment.

A Decade-Long Journey in Casting Coordination

Vishal Modanwal’s association with the entertainment industry began in 2014, a period that saw Indian television and digital media entering a phase of rapid transformation. As production houses scaled up their output to meet growing audience demand, the need for structured casting support — particularly for junior artists, crowd artists, background performers, and supporting character artists — became increasingly important.

Modanwal identified this gap early and began building a casting coordination system focused on maintaining a reliable artist database while ensuring smooth communication between production teams and performers. Over the years, this approach has allowed him to support a long list of well-known television and digital productions.

His portfolio includes work on popular television shows such as Savdhaan India, Crime Patrol, Fear Files, Code Red, Madam Sir, Guddan Tumse Na Ho Payega, Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka, Krishna Chali London, Muskaan, Barrister Babu, Nimki Mukhiya, Nazar, Kaala Teeka, Bindiya Sarkar, Jijaji Chhat Par Hain, and Ek Hasina Thi. He has also contributed to the casting requirements of acclaimed web series including The Family Man, Rangbaaz, Aashiqana, Halala, Sixer, Wafa, Paro, and several other digital productions that have found large audiences on streaming platforms.

Beyond scripted television and OTT content, Modanwal has extended his casting expertise to music videos, promotional campaigns, and commercial advertisements. His experience spans coordinating artists for junior roles, crowd sequences, featured background performances, supporting characters, child artists, models, and promotional shoots — a breadth of work that reflects how casting professionals today are expected to operate across multiple formats and mediums.

Creating Opportunities for Thousands of Aspiring Artists

One of the most significant aspects of Modanwal’s career has been his role in helping newcomers find a foothold in a highly competitive industry. Thousands of aspiring actors and models have connected with production opportunities through auditions and casting drives managed by Bollywood Star Cast.

His casting process is built around three core principles: professionalism, timely coordination, and matching the right artist to the right project. For many first-time performers, this structured approach offers a more transparent and organised route into an industry that can otherwise feel difficult to access.

“With over a decade of experience, Vishal Modanwal has established himself as a trusted name in casting coordination. His work continues to bridge the gap between aspiring artists and production houses, helping new talent find opportunities while supporting the growing demands of India’s television, OTT and advertising industry.”

With more than ten years of industry experience, Modanwal continues to work closely with production houses, filmmakers, advertising agencies, and digital content creators, contributing to casting operations across television, OTT platforms, and commercial projects.

Career Highlights and Areas of Expertise

Modanwal’s body of work spans a wide range of casting functions within the entertainment and advertising ecosystem. Key highlights of his career include:

  • Over a decade of experience in the Indian entertainment industry, specialising in casting coordination and talent management.
  • Successfully coordinated casting requirements for television serials, web series, feature films, music videos, digital content, commercial advertisements, brand campaigns, and fashion events.
  • Extensive experience providing junior artists, crowd artists, background performers, featured extras, and supporting character artists for productions across multiple genres.
  • Managed casting drives for daily soaps, crime-based shows, reality-format productions, OTT originals, and digital entertainment platforms.
  • Coordinated artists for television commercials (TVCs), print campaigns, digital advertisements, e-commerce promotions, corporate films, and brand activation shoots.
  • Worked closely with production houses, casting teams, assistant directors, line producers, and creative agencies to ensure smooth artist coordination and on-time execution.
  • Organised and managed large-scale auditions for actors, models, child artists, influencers, and fresh talent from across India.
  • Experienced in coordinating fashion shows, beauty pageants, modelling competitions, talent hunts, and runway events, including complete artist and backstage management.
  • Contributed to the successful execution of brand launches, promotional campaigns, celebrity appearances, product shoots, and lifestyle campaigns.
  • Built and managed a growing network of aspiring and professional artists, helping connect talent with genuine entertainment opportunities.
  • Known for maintaining a structured casting process, quick turnaround time, and reliable coordination between artists and production teams.
  • Passionate about discovering fresh talent and creating opportunities for newcomers while supporting the evolving needs of the entertainment industry.
  • Continues to collaborate with production companies, filmmakers, advertising agencies, fashion organisers, and digital content creators across India.

“Every successful production begins with the right talent, and every talented artist deserves the right opportunity.” — Vishal Modanwal, Casting Director

Bollywood Star Cast: A Growing Name in Pan-India Casting

Bollywood Star Cast is an entertainment industry-based casting company specialising in talent discovery, artist coordination, and casting solutions for upcoming television serials, web series, films, music videos, advertisements, brand shoots, and modelling projects across India.

Founded by Vishal Modanwal, the company has worked to create a bridge between talented individuals and the practical requirements of production houses. Bollywood Star Cast provides casting support for junior artists, crowd artists, supporting characters, background performers, actors, models, and fresh talent, based on the specific needs of different entertainment projects.

With an artist network that extends across multiple cities, Bollywood Star Cast conducts pan-India auditions, giving aspiring actors and models from smaller towns and cities a genuine opportunity to enter the television, OTT, and film industry. The company has also embraced online auditions, a shift that has made participation significantly easier for artists who may not be based in Mumbai or other major production hubs.

In addition to casting services, Bollywood Star Cast places emphasis on talent development. The company offers acting courses, workshops, and professional training programmes designed to help aspiring artists build stronger acting skills, improve their confidence, develop screen presence, and gain a better understanding of how the entertainment industry actually operates.

Over time, Bollywood Star Cast has been associated with casting requirements for numerous television serials, web series, advertisements, music albums, and modelling events, while continuing to focus on discovering new faces and providing a platform for emerging talent.

Through professional coordination, a structured audition process, and an expanding network of artists, Bollywood Star Cast aims to contribute meaningfully to the growth of India’s entertainment industry by connecting the right talent with the right opportunities at the right time.

The Bigger Picture: Why Casting Coordination Matters

As India’s entertainment industry continues to diversify — spanning traditional television, streaming platforms, short-form digital content, and brand-driven advertising — the role of casting directors and casting companies has become increasingly vital. Producers and directors need dependable partners who can supply appropriately matched talent within tight production timelines, while aspiring artists need credible platforms that can give them a genuine shot at visibility.

Professionals like Vishal Modanwal, operating through structured entities such as Bollywood Star Cast, represent this connective layer of the industry. Their work may not always be in the spotlight, but it plays a foundational role in how productions are staffed and how new talent finds its first break.

As the demand for content across OTT platforms, television, and digital advertising continues to rise, casting coordination is likely to remain a critical function within India’s entertainment ecosystem — and professionals with over a decade of hands-on experience, like Modanwal, are well positioned to keep supporting that growth.

How Aspiring Artists Can Get Involved

For newcomers looking to enter the industry, casting companies such as Bollywood Star Cast typically function as a first point of contact. Interested actors and models are generally required to register with a portfolio or basic profile details, after which they are considered for auditions matching their look, age group, and skill set. Because auditions are conducted both in person and online, artists based outside major cities like Mumbai are increasingly able to participate without needing to relocate immediately.

Modanwal has often emphasised that consistency and professionalism matter as much as talent when it comes to sustaining a long-term career in front of the camera. Artists who stay updated with ongoing casting calls, respond promptly to coordination requests, and maintain a professional attitude on set tend to receive repeat opportunities from production teams that value reliability.

About Bollywood Star Cast

Bollywood Star Cast — “Creating Opportunities. Discovering Talent. Building Dreams.” — is a Mumbai-based casting company founded by Vishal Modanwal, offering casting coordination, artist management, and talent development services across India’s television, film, OTT, and advertising industries.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vishal.casting

Vishal Modanwal – IMDb https://share.google/BquTzfOpD1IRtcn0t

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Odisha’s Dakloni Masala Bets on “100% Pure” Positioning in India’s Crowded Spice Market

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BHUBANESWAR — A spice and dry-fruit brand rooted in Odisha, Dakloni Masala, is positioning itself around purity and traditional sourcing as it competes in India’s increasingly crowded packaged-spice market, according to the company and its parent, Green Chocy Private Limited.

The brand traces its roots to 1983, according to company materials, and says it has focused since then on bringing “the purity of organic spices and authentic traditional flavours” to Indian kitchens. Its current range spans turmeric powder, red chilli and Kashmiri red chilli powder, garam masala, garlic and onion powder, and a dry-fruits line covering cashews, almonds, walnuts, pistachios and raisins.

Dakloni operates under Green Chocy Private Limited, which holds FSSAI license number 12026999000110 and is based in Bomikhal, Rasulgarh, in Khorda district, Odisha. The company describes its approach as “100% Pure, Natural & Premium Quality,” a claim it backs with references to “strict quality checks before packaging” and sourcing “carefully selected” from trusted farmers and suppliers, according to its website.

A Fragmented, Fast-Growing Category

India’s packaged-spice sector has drawn a wave of regional and direct-to-consumer entrants in recent years, alongside established national players, as consumers increasingly shop for spices online rather than through neighborhood grocers. Industry analysts who track the space say purity and traceability claims have become a common differentiator for newer brands, though such claims are typically self-reported rather than independently audited unless tied to a specific third-party certification beyond baseline food-safety licensing.

Dakloni’s FSSAI registration is a standard requirement for any food business operating in India and confirms basic regulatory compliance rather than certifying “organic” status specifically; the company has not indicated it holds a separate organic-certification mark, and this report could not independently verify the “organic” language used in its own marketing material.

An Odisha Identity

The brand markets itself explicitly around its Odisha base, a positioning that distinguishes it from larger national spice brands headquartered elsewhere. Company materials link its Dakloni Masala spice range to the region’s culinary heritage, though the company has not published details of specific farms or supply chains involved.

Dakloni also markets a grocery and makhana range alongside its core spice and dry-fruit lines, positioning itself as a broader everyday-essentials brand rather than a single-category spice house.

What Comes Next

The company has not disclosed retail distribution figures, revenue, or store count, and operates primarily as a direct-to-consumer brand through its own websites and social media channels. Whether its purity-focused positioning translates into meaningful market share against established national spice brands remains to be seen.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Dakloni Masala sell?

The brand’s core lines are turmeric powder, red chilli and Kashmiri red chilli powder, garam masala, garlic and onion powder, and a dry-fruits range including cashews, almonds, walnuts, pistachios and raisins, alongside makhana and grocery staples.

Who owns Dakloni Masala?

The brand operates under Green Chocy Private Limited, an FSSAI-licensed food business based in Khorda district, Odisha.

Visit- dakloni.in

Visit- dakloni.com

Facebook- Dakloni Masala

Instagram- @daklonimasala

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PTAHA Emerges as a Fast-Growing Voice for India’s Travel Trade After Crossing 100 Members in 27 Days

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Association strengthens national leadership with Rishi Deepak Budhadev as National President and Suresh Nair as Acting Vice President

India, August 2026: In a notable beginning for a newly established industry association, the Professional Travel Agents and Hotels Association (PTAHA) has crossed the 100-member mark within just 27 days, signalling strong early support from professionals across India’s travel, tourism and hospitality sector.

Alongside this milestone, PTAHA has announced a strengthened national leadership structure with the appointment of Mr. Rishi Deepak Budhadev as National President and Mr. Suresh Nair as Acting Vice President.

The rapid growth comes at a time when travel agents, tour operators, hotels, DMCs and other tourism businesses are increasingly seeking stronger professional networks, business opportunities, knowledge-sharing platforms and collective industry engagement.

A Fast Start for a New Industry Platform

PTAHA was established as a Section 8 not-for-profit organisation with the objective of bringing different segments of the travel and hospitality industry onto a common professional platform.

Reaching more than 100 members in 27 days has given the association a strong foundation for its national expansion plans. PTAHA sees the milestone as an endorsement of its member-focused approach and its objective of creating practical value for tourism professionals.

Rather than functioning only as a networking body, PTAHA aims to provide members with opportunities for business promotion, industry interaction, education, networking and participation in major tourism events.

The association is also working towards creating greater engagement between its members and tourism boards, destinations, hotels, trade fair organisers and other stakeholders.

Rishi Deepak Budhadev to Lead National Expansion

As part of the association’s next phase, Mr. Rishi Deepak Budhadev has been appointed National President of PTAHA.

His responsibilities will include guiding the organisation’s national growth, strengthening its regional presence and developing initiatives that deliver greater value to members.

Under his leadership, PTAHA plans to expand its network through regional chapters and increase its participation across India’s travel trade ecosystem.

The association also intends to use major tourism trade fairs and industry platforms to provide its members with greater visibility and opportunities to promote their businesses.

Suresh Nair Joins National Leadership

PTAHA has appointed Mr. Suresh Nair as Acting Vice President, adding further depth to its national leadership team.

Mr. Nair will support the association in member engagement, organisational development and expansion of its professional network. His role will also involve working closely with the national leadership to strengthen PTAHA’s presence among travel and hospitality professionals in different parts of the country.

From Membership to Industry Community

PTAHA’s leadership believes that the association’s growth should ultimately be measured by the value it creates for its members.

Its initiatives include trade-fair participation, branding and promotional opportunities, networking, webinars, educational programmes, FAM and educational trips, member marketing initiatives and industry interactions.

The association is also focused on creating opportunities where members can promote their businesses while building relationships with fellow professionals and potential business partners.

The 100+ membership milestone therefore represents more than a numerical achievement. For PTAHA, it marks the beginning of a wider professional community that aims to work collectively for the growth of India’s tourism industry.

Leadership Message

Mr. Rishi Deepak Budhadev, National President, PTAHA, expressed his appreciation to the association’s members and supporters for placing their trust in the organisation within such a short period.

He said the achievement belongs to the entire PTAHA family and that the association’s immediate priority will be to convert this early momentum into meaningful opportunities, stronger industry relationships and long-term benefits for its members.

With its membership crossing 100 in just 27 days and its national leadership now strengthened, PTAHA is preparing for a broader phase of expansion across India.

The association aims to build a professional community where travel agents, hotels and tourism businesses can connect, collaborate, promote and grow together, while contributing collectively to a stronger and more organised Indian tourism industry.

About PTAHA

Professional Travel Agents and Hotels Association (PTAHA) is a Section 8 not-for-profit organisation representing professionals from India’s travel, tourism and hospitality sector.

PTAHA works towards professional networking, business promotion, education, industry engagement, trade-fair participation and creating growth opportunities for its members.

Website: www.ptaha.org.in

Email: ptahaindia@gmail.com

Contact: +91 78078 75757

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Beyond the 350 Pages: The Emotional Journey of S Tanuja Sri Sasi Kumar From Struggle to Becoming a Published Novelist

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For many writers, publishing a book is the culmination of a dream. For debut author S Tanuja Sri Sasi Kumar, however, the journey behind her first novel, If You Had Loved Me APPA, was much more than simply writing a manuscript and getting it published. It was a journey shaped by self-doubt, financial challenges, heartbreak, persistence, creativity, and an unwavering desire to create something that would make her stand apart.

Her debut psychological fiction novel, published by Evincepub on 20 July 2026, is the result of a writing journey that began years before the book reached readers. Spanning 350 pages, the novel represents not only her first major literary work but also a deeply personal milestone in her evolution as a writer.

For Tanuja, writing was never simply about producing a book. It became a way of expressing thoughts that could not always be spoken aloud, processing emotions, and creating a world where her imagination could take shape.

The Unexpected Beginning of a Writer

Tanuja’s journey as a writer began rather unexpectedly.

Her first serious piece of writing was a three- to four-page essay. At the time, she remembers feeling that everyone around her seemed to have something that made them special. Some people were talented at particular skills, while she struggled with the feeling that she had not yet discovered what made her unique.

That feeling eventually became the motivation to try something different.

She wrote an essay based on an idea that she believed would make her stand out. When she shared it with someone for the first time, the reaction surprised her. The reader was impressed by the writing, particularly by the psychological-thriller element and the unexpected final twist.

The response she received became a turning point.

People were intrigued enough to ask whether the serious elements in the story were actually true. Their surprise and curiosity made Tanuja realize that perhaps writing was the talent she had been searching for.

That appreciation encouraged her to write more.

Before beginning her debut novel, she experimented with essays, poems, and short stories. These smaller works gradually became a foundation for something much larger.

Today, she describes writing in much more intimate terms.

For her, writing became a confidant—a space where she could put down opinions, emotions, thoughts, and feelings that she could not always express openly. What began as paper and pen eventually became an essential part of her life.

“Writing was my best friend,” she reflects, “and now it is my everything.”

A Writer Drawn to the Psychology of Human Beings

Tanuja has always been attracted to psychological thrillers and stories that explore the darker and more complicated sides of the human mind.

She is particularly fascinated by questions surrounding human behaviour: how an innocent mind can change, how circumstances can influence a person’s thinking, and how emotional experiences can sometimes transform someone into a completely different person.

This interest naturally found its way into her fiction.

Rather than being interested only in external events, she is drawn to what happens inside a person’s mind. The transformation of emotions, the development of psychological conflicts, and the hidden reasons behind people’s actions are themes that continue to interest her as both a reader and a writer.

That approach also influenced the creation of If You Had Loved Me APPA.

The title itself did not exist at the beginning of the writing process. Tanuja first decided to write the story and developed its characters and emotional world. As the story progressed, she realized that one particular character’s life could have been profoundly different if she had received the love she needed from her father.

That realization eventually gave the novel its title.

Choosing a Different Kind of Love Story

Contemporary fiction frequently explores romantic relationships—love, separation, heartbreak, and reconciliation. Tanuja wanted to explore a different kind of emotional wound.

For her, family relationships can contain forms of pain that are rarely discussed with the same intensity as romantic heartbreak.

The father-daughter relationship at the heart of If You Had Loved Me APPA emerged from that belief. The novel explores the emotional consequences of an important relationship, while examining love, pain, longing, misunderstanding, and healing.

Although some emotional experiences and incidents in the novel were influenced by real experiences, Tanuja chooses not to disclose the personal circumstances behind them. Instead, she allows the fiction to speak for itself.

For her, the important thing is not whether readers know which parts came from reality. What matters is whether they recognize the emotions.

When Writing Became an Escape

The process of writing the novel was far from easy.

Tanuja was simultaneously dealing with financial responsibilities and personal struggles while trying to pursue writing as a passion. Coming from an ordinary family where financial considerations mattered, she could not simply put everything else aside and focus exclusively on publishing a book.

The novel had to wait.

What had initially been planned years earlier eventually took roughly two to three years to reach publication. During that period, writing remained important to her, but it had to coexist with the realities of everyday life.

There were also emotional struggles.

Heartbreak and difficult personal experiences became part of the period in which the novel was being written. There were moments when she cried while writing. Because she imagined each scene vividly as she wrote it, the emotions of the characters sometimes became emotionally overwhelming.

Yet those experiences did not stop her from writing.

In fact, she believes they strengthened her ability to tell the story.

Writing became an escape from everything happening around her. While she was writing, her attention moved away from her problems and toward the fictional world she was creating. The next question became not what was going wrong in her life, but when she would finish the book and when she could finally publish it.

She never seriously considered abandoning the novel.

Her determination came partly from a deeper fear: she did not want to go through life without accomplishing something that was uniquely hers. Publishing a book became more than a career goal. It became proof to herself that she could create something lasting.

The First Manuscript That Never Became a Book

Interestingly, If You Had Loved Me APPA was not the first novel Tanuja attempted.

Before it, she wrote a psychological thriller that grew to more than 700 pages.

The project began with a clear concept and title, but as she continued writing, new stories and ideas kept appearing. Instead of following one consistent storyline, the manuscript gradually became more complex and sprawling, almost like a long web series.

There were also difficulties with the manuscript itself, including problems involving lost text.

Eventually, she decided not to publish that book.

The experience taught her something important about storytelling: having many ideas is valuable, but knowing how to control those ideas within one story is equally important.

That unfinished manuscript did not end her dream. Instead, it eventually led her toward the story that would become her published debut.

The Fear of Writing Too Little—and Then Too Much

When Tanuja began writing her new novel, she initially had a very different fear.

She wondered whether she would even be able to write 100 or 120 pages. What if the story ended too quickly? What if she ran out of things to say?

But the opposite happened.

The manuscript crossed 200 pages, and she still had more of the story to tell.

That created an entirely new fear.

What if it became 700 or 800 pages like her previous manuscript?

Eventually, the story settled at approximately 350 pages.

Looking back, she describes the process with three words: emotional, dream, and excited.

One unusual technique helped her maintain the emotional continuity of the story. Because she sometimes had gaps of several days between writing sessions, she would listen to a particular song before returning to the manuscript.

The song helped her imagine the entire book as though it were being filmed.

Once she entered that mental world again, she could recover the flow of the story and continue writing.

The Financial Reality Behind a Dream

Completing a manuscript was only one part of becoming a published author.

Publishing the book presented another set of challenges.

Tanuja wanted her first book to receive the best possible treatment, which led her to choose a premium publishing option. However, arranging the money required for publication was difficult.

The financial pressure became particularly challenging because writing was a passion, but she did not want pursuing that passion to damage her family’s financial situation.

Even after choosing a publisher, the process brought new anxieties.

As a first-time author, she was unfamiliar with many aspects of publishing. Slow responses from the publishing team sometimes made her nervous, particularly because she was eager to see the book completed.

She repeatedly followed up about the cover, opening pages, proofreading, and other stages of production.

Proofreading became one of her biggest concerns.

Despite carefully reviewing the manuscript herself, she later noticed additional typographical mistakes and revisions that needed attention. The experience taught her how demanding the final stages of producing a book can be, particularly when the manuscript is hundreds of pages long.

The Day the Book Became Real

After years of writing, waiting, financial planning, revisions, and uncertainty, the dream finally became physical.

On 15 July 2026, Tanuja received her printed copies from the publisher.

For her, that was one of the happiest moments of her life.

Holding the physical book was different from looking at a manuscript on a screen. Her name was printed on the cover. The hundreds of pages she had written were now an actual book she could hold.

She remembers feeling overwhelmed with happiness and disbelief.

Five days later, on 20 July 2026, If You Had Loved Me APPA was officially published.

The moment represented the fulfilment of a dream that had taken years to reach.

If she could return to the version of herself who had started writing the novel years earlier, her advice would be simple:

Do not give up. Do not hesitate. Do not overthink it. Keep going and publish your work.

The Reality After Publication

Tanuja entered publication with hopes that many first-time authors can understand.

She imagined that once the book was published, people would discover it, read it, appreciate it, and begin to understand her through her writing.

Reality turned out to be more complicated.

One of the biggest lessons she learned was that publishing a book and getting people to discover it are two completely different things.

Today, the challenge is not simply having a book. It is reaching the right readers.

The cost of the book, printing expenses, marketing, limited audience reach, and the difficulty of building visibility have all created obstacles. As a first-time author, she has also had to confront the reality that publishing does not automatically create an audience.

Marketing has become one of the most difficult aspects of her post-publication journey.

She had hoped for organic discovery, but building visibility often requires significant effort and investment. For a debut author without an established audience, reaching readers can be particularly difficult.

Yet her motivation has never primarily been financial.

Tanuja says that her main goal is not to make a profit from the book. What she wants is for people to know her name and associate it with a story worth reading.

She wants readers to be able to say:

“This is the author who wrote that book.”

Recognition and the Belief to Keep Going

Tanuja has also received multiple awards and recognitions for her writing.

Rather than treating these recognitions simply as titles, she sees them as moments that strengthened her confidence as a writer. Receiving positive evaluation for her earlier manuscript and being selected for recognition made her feel that her writing had value beyond her own personal belief in it.

For her, that recognition matters because writing can be an uncertain journey. A writer may spend months or years creating something without knowing how others will receive it.

Recognition can provide a moment of reassurance.

But she does not want awards to define her identity as an author. Her larger ambition is to build a body of work that readers recognize independently of individual awards.

An Author Who Wants to Talk to Readers, Not Above Them

 Tanuja does not want her writing to feel inaccessible.

One of the qualities she considers a strength is the simplicity of her language. She hopes her stories can reach not only regular book lovers but also people who do not normally read books.

Her ideal reading experience is conversational.

She wants readers to feel as though the author is sitting with them and telling them a story rather than simply presenting a book to them.

Emotional connection is more important to her than making every reader cry.

At the centre of her philosophy is a belief that every human being needs love and deserves to experience it. Through her stories, she hopes readers can recognize themselves, confront their emotions, and perhaps feel lighter after reading.

She wants her writing to give a voice to thoughts that people often keep inside themselves.

What the First Novel Taught Her

Writing If You Had Loved Me APPA taught Tanuja more than she expected about her own creativity.

During the process, new ideas constantly emerged. Some of those ideas surprised her and made her proud of the creative possibilities she could discover within herself.

The journey also taught her patience and persistence.

More importantly, it reinforced a belief she now wants to share with other aspiring writers: a manuscript should not remain hidden forever because of fear.

Her advice is rooted in her own experience.

Life is short, she believes, and writers should not be afraid to create something that makes them different. A writer who has a manuscript should consider taking the step toward publication instead of endlessly waiting for the perfect moment.

At the same time, her own experience taught her the importance of understanding the business side of publishing.

One lesson she would particularly emphasize to debut authors is pricing. She believes a book should be priced at a level readers can reasonably afford while still reflecting the quality and value of the work.

A Story That Should Outlive Its Author

Tanuja understands that not every writer receives immediate recognition.

In an increasingly crowded publishing environment, countless people write books, but only some receive widespread attention.

She does not see that as a reason to stop.

For her, a book has the possibility of existing beyond the moment in which it was published. Even if a writer does not become widely recognized during their lifetime, their work can continue to be discovered by future generations.

That possibility gives her a different perspective on literary success.

The goal is not simply immediate popularity.

The goal is to create something that lasts.

Looking Beyond the Debut

If You Had Loved Me APPA may be her debut, but Tanuja sees it as the beginning rather than the destination.

She has numerous stories and ideas living in her mind that she hopes to eventually transform into books.

Her next work is expected to continue exploring reality-inspired themes and the kinds of emotional and psychological subjects that naturally attract her as a writer.

Her ambition is straightforward but significant: she wants to become a recognized novelist whose name readers know.

She does not want to become merely one more name among thousands of authors who have published books.

She wants readers to recognize her name.

More importantly, she wants them to recognize her writing.

“I Am Just Like You”

Perhaps the most revealing part of Tanuja’s philosophy is that she does not want to place herself above her readers.

Despite her ambitions as a novelist, she does not describe herself as someone fundamentally different from the people who read her work.

She sees herself as one among them—a person who has faced problems, struggled, dreamed, doubted, and continued moving forward.

That is ultimately what she hopes her writing can encourage others to do.

To speak about what they have kept silent.

To acknowledge their pain.

To stop allowing insecurity to define them.

To learn to love themselves.

And, above all, to keep going.

For S Tanuja Sri Sasi Kumar, the 350 pages of If You Had Loved Me APPA are therefore more than pages in a debut novel. They represent years of persistence, imagination, emotional struggle, financial challenges, uncertainty, and the determination to create something uniquely her own.

The book may have been published on 20 July 2026, but the journey of the novelist behind it is only beginning.

About S Tanuja Sri Sasi Kumar

S Tanuja Sri Sasi Kumar is an emerging Indian novelist and creative writer whose work focuses on psychological, emotional, and relationship-driven storytelling. Her debut psychological fiction novel, If You Had Loved Me APPA, was published by Evincepub in July 2026. Her writing explores human psychology, emotional relationships, love, pain, healing, and the thoughts people often leave unspoken. She hopes to continue writing novels that are accessible, emotionally engaging, and relatable to both regular readers and those who do not usually read fiction.

As she continues developing her literary career, Tanuja aims to build a recognizable identity as a novelist and bring more of the stories that live in her imagination to readers around the world.

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