Nayantara Roy, THE MAGNIFICENT RUINS
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[0:42]Nia Ntara Roy is the author of The Magnificent Ruins.
[0:46]She is also a television executive at stars slash Lionsgate,
[0:50]where she oversees the acquisition and creative development of original script and television series.
[0:55]Prior to stars, she worked at Endeavor Content Series,
[0:59]Normal People, Nine Perfect Strangers, and at A.G.B.O. Joe and Anthony Russo's Television Studio.
[1:05]In 2018, Tara won the Rick DeMarini's Short Story Prize for her short story, A.C., originally from India.
[1:11]She is a 2020 alumni of the Cape Coalition of Asian-Pacific Executives in Entertainment, Leaders Program,
[1:18]and its stars is a jury member of the Stars, Hashtag Take the Lead Directors Program,
[1:23]which is designed to create more directing opportunities for women and people of color.
[1:27]Her plays have been performed internationally, including at the Prizfi Theater in Mumbai, India,
[1:33]and Contact Theater Manchester, UK.
[1:35]She lives in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.
[1:37]Welcome, Nia Ntara. Thank you so much for coming on Momsdon't have time to read books to discuss the magnificent ruins,
[1:43]which I loved from the first time I opened it and I'm so excited to see it in this form and all of that.
[1:50]So congratulations.
[1:52]Thanks so much for having me.
[1:53]My pleasure.
[1:54]Can you please tell listeners what your book is about?
[1:57]Yeah, it is about Lila, a 29-year-old editor in Brooklyn in the publishing world, and she wakes up one morning in Brooklyn in her apartment,
[2:09]and discovers that her grandfather is dead.
[2:12]Her grandfather lives in India and has left her this enormous mansion.
[2:17]The only catch is that Lila's mother, grandmother, and a host of other relatives in what is commonly called a joint family,
[2:25]still live in the mansion.
[2:27]Lila goes back to India and sort of confronts the things she has left behind, and that can include both the family, but also a whole host of other secrets.
[2:38]Love the pitch, excellent.
[2:40]Well done.
[2:41]And where did the story come from?
[2:43]Yeah, I mean, I was at Columbia University doing a degree in film and TV to become an executive.
[2:50]And fiction has always been in my bones a little bit.
[2:54]You know, it was the thing that I knew I would get to at some point.
[2:58]So I took this class with this professor called Benjamin Taylor, and he was called other people's secrets.
[3:06]And, you know, for weeks we heard lectures and really inspired me.
[3:11]And then at the end he was like, well, you should, you guys should all write something for it.
[3:15]And what came out of me was an essay about a mother and a daughter.
[3:19]And I realized I had never spoken about the thing that kind of haunted me, which is a culture of violence that is often conflated with discipline in this is the first time, by the way.
[3:32]This is my first podcast.
[3:33]So this is the first time I'm speaking about it.
[3:36]I'm honored.
[3:38]What was so intriguing to me was that I then sort of sent the essay to my novelist, cousin, who you've interviewed as well.
[3:49]And other people in the community remind me who your cousin is.
[3:52]Her name is Disha Bose and she did dirty laundry.
[3:56]Yes, yes.
[3:57]But I also loved.
[3:59]And what was so interesting is that the way it was normalized, what you would call social services for in one country is very much in the water of another.
[4:07]country.
[4:08]Right.
[4:09]And then I went on this other path after the essay had been written to sort of understand the systemic generational quality to what we had experienced.
[4:21]And it was not different from what my black friends or my Chinese friends had experienced in my very nerdy circle.
[4:30]And I realized there was there was something there.
[4:34]And then Professor Taylor really pushed me and said it should be a book.
[4:40]And here we are.
[4:41]Wow.
[4:42]How much time went between him saying that and today that was the year 2015.
[4:49]That nine years.
[4:50]That's not bad.
[4:53]I mean, for listeners, the book is what four hundred and fifty six pages.
[4:59]Right.
[5:00]Yes.
[5:01]It was longer.
[5:05]What was it?
[5:06]And it's longest.
[5:07]I think, you know, a first draft had clocked in at six hundred.
[5:11]And a first draft is filled with things that a reader does not ever need to see.
[5:15]And I was working with my dear friends.
[5:17]And Sonel Yappa, the novelist to, you know, sort of he was just being like, there's something here.
[5:22]But we really have to make sense of it.
[5:24]And that was way before my agent or my editor ever saw it.
[5:27]Wow.
[5:28]So the process of cutting it down and finding the meat of it and what was really important is that something you love doing.
[5:36]Some people love some people hate.
[5:38]Like, did you find that exciting or excruciating to cut?
[5:41]I did not find it excruciating.
[5:43]And in terms of novels, you know, I was very, I'm a giant reader.
[5:49]And my day job helps me sort of understand what works and what doesn't.
[5:54]And I needed the help and I wanted the help.
[5:56]So I was very grateful for it.
[5:59]I remember that was this one passage I really loved.
[6:02]And, you know, I think on its own, it's very pretty.
[6:07]And my editor was like, absolutely not.
[6:10]I too am terrified of bugs, but this does not belong.
[6:18]And so it's not, you'll never see it.
[6:21]I hope you saved it off to the side somewhere.
[6:24]I did.
[6:25]I have like a deleted scenes, you know, maybe I shove it into something at some point.
[6:29]You never know.
[6:30]Yeah.
[6:31]Yeah.
[6:32]Yeah.
[6:33]As a novelist yourself, I'm sure that's, that's very familiar.
[6:35]We tell me about your day job, which I know we discussed last time.
[6:38]But anyway, tell everybody else about more about what you do and how,
[6:42]and how you rose in that career as well.
[6:44]Yeah.
[6:45]What I wanted to be was a writer.
[6:48]And I have novelist in the family, my granddad to my cousin.
[6:52]I just never saw myself being a full-time writer.
[6:56]I have too much anxiety for it.
[6:58]You know.
[6:59]And so I was like, I will say, I will say that seems to be a prerequisite to be a writer.
[7:04]It's to have some level of anxiety.
[7:06]So you're, you'll fit right in.
[7:08]Maybe the messages to sort of share it with the world and be like.
[7:13]So, you know, I, I had mucked about in the theater in Bombay as some of my plays that I had written,
[7:20]had gotten produced internationally as well.
[7:23]And then I just went off to school, you know, and by the time I got to graduate school,
[7:30]film and TV had, I was in touch with a lot of executives who inspired me.
[7:36]And I was like, this is great.
[7:38]I, I understand the world of IP and books.
[7:41]And I want to be the guy who, you know, doesn't just hand off the book,
[7:47]you know, but I want to make that into a show.
[7:50]And so I learned how to do that at Columbia.
[7:52]And then right from there on, I worked for the Russo brothers.
[7:57]And then I worked at a studio and now I work at a network.
[8:00]So it's been very organic that process.
[8:03]And so your day job.
[8:05]Are you evaluating scripts still?
[8:07]Are you like, what is, what are some of the things and what are some exciting projects?
[8:11]We don't have to talk much about it, but I'm just curious.
[8:14]No.
[8:15]And it feeds right into my writing, but I'm a television executive.
[8:19]And I work at stars, which means that I buy projects from all adults levels.
[8:25]Right. Sometimes it's a full pitch with an analyst actor attached in the room.
[8:30]And sometimes depending on how famous the person is, it's a cocktail napkin idea.
[8:34]Will my job is to sort of buy it and then oversee the creative development of those scripts.
[8:41]The scripts when they're ready finally go off to shoot.
[8:44]And that's where I'm not involved anymore.
[8:46]But the cuts come back to me to give creative.
[8:49]So fun.
[8:50]It can be some days.
[8:52]No.
[8:53]Like anything else, you know, it can be really stressful to work with.
[9:00]What is there one project that you like had so much involvement with that you feel particular pride?
[9:08]Sharing.
[9:09]Sure.
[9:10]You know, I have a project that's just wrapping up post production right now.
[9:14]It's called the hunting wives.
[9:16]Oh, yeah.
[9:17]You got me.
[9:18]Yeah.
[9:19]Yeah.
[9:20]Me who's now a dear friend.
[9:21]Yeah.
[9:22]And, you know, I, it's sort of, it's wonderful to, because we switch jobs, the industry shifts manage it.
[9:29]It's kind of wonderful to go from.
[9:31]Hey, a book came in.
[9:32]This is great.
[9:33]We're going to develop it.
[9:35]Let's make an offer.
[9:37]Great.
[9:38]We've got the book now.
[9:39]We have to attach a showrunner, a writer.
[9:42]Let's get this through to the next level.
[9:44]All these scripts are great.
[9:46]Well, the stars vision for this is one way.
[9:49]And then sort of getting that process and seeing it all the way to where it is now in the cut space.
[9:55]It's really interesting.
[9:56]I'm so excited for that.
[9:57]I love makeup.
[9:58]When is that show coming out?
[9:59]Too many.
[10:00]Yeah, we don't have an arid yet, but it's in.
[10:02]You were just filming it, right?
[10:03]Wasn't it just?
[10:04]That's right.
[10:05]I was on set in North Carolina.
[10:08]Yeah, oh, it's so fun.
[10:09]I didn't know.
[10:10]It's world is so small.
[10:11]Does that mean that you can make your own book
[10:14]into a show?
[10:15]Are you planning on that?
[10:16]Are you hoping?
[10:17]Not me, certainly.
[10:19]But I have given it over to the agents
[10:22]to do what they will.
[10:23]OK.
[10:24]All right, sounds good.
[10:26]Tell me more about the secrets and characters
[10:29]in the book and some of the messages
[10:31]that you wanted to really bring to the fore.
[10:33]I know you mentioned violence and gender relations.
[10:37]And that is so interesting to think about the norms
[10:40]of different countries, right?
[10:41]I think I'm at that a lot, actually.
[10:43]Like, even I read a lot of parenting books about parenting
[10:47]across cultures and just kids just come out
[10:50]these blank slates.
[10:51]I don't know.
[10:52]Why do we make the rules we make?
[10:53]I mean, look at how they're doing it over there.
[10:55]They're so much better off, it seems like.
[10:58]So anyway, more of the themes or more
[11:01]of the subtleties in the book.
[11:03]Talk a little bit more about that.
[11:06]And usually the answer to that question
[11:08]that you're asking, why do we make the rules the way we do?
[11:12]It's in the DNA of our ancestors, right?
[11:15]It's in the DNA of how a culture or how a group of people
[11:19]have come to survive, have come to want their kids to do better.
[11:25]And it's in the, both the joys and the trauma
[11:28]of what they experience themselves, right?
[11:30]And that is very much the idea of generational inheritance.
[11:34]We don't just inherit homes and property.
[11:38]We inherit a whole bunch of things from our parents.
[11:41]And the idea of that, especially at a stage
[11:45]where, you know, I am thinking about what I'll pass on
[11:48]to my kids was kind of crucial.
[11:51]I also wanted to write a story about a love letter
[11:56]to two countries that I really love.
[11:59]I loved Brooklyn in such a specific way.
[12:03]And I mean, I live in Silver Lake now.
[12:06]But you know, I'm kidding.
[12:10]And I found myself in this sort of the kind of deep love
[12:15]for Calcutta.
[12:17]It's in my bones.
[12:18]And, you know, I wanted to write about being torn
[12:21]between both places, but also belonging to both places.
[12:25]And I think that's a theme.
[12:27]My partner was pointing that out last night
[12:29]that keeps recurring whether it's Lila's choices
[12:33]between the men in her life, whether it's Lila's choices
[12:37]between the past and the present
[12:38]and whether it's between Brooklyn and Calcutta.
[12:41]Hm.
[12:43]Gosh, I love it.
[12:44]So now that you took nine years to write this novel,
[12:48]have you sold another one?
[12:49]And do you now have like nine months to write it?
[12:51]Yeah.
[12:53]I actually took seven years to write it.
[12:56]And then it sold.
[12:58]And in the year and a half, I've written another novel,
[13:02]which is going out soon.
[13:04]Exciting.
[13:05]Can you say anything about that one?
[13:07]Sure.
[13:07]It's got sisters of the half-dart,
[13:10]and it is about two half-sisters,
[13:11]which is a relationship that I find so interesting.
[13:16]I have a half sibling myself.
[13:17]The sisters in the book share some DNA with us, I guess,
[13:21]but also not at all in the way that fiction comes about.
[13:25]And then, you know, I found like there's a politeness
[13:29]to the relationship and a deep desire to belong
[13:32]to each other, which is so specific, you know,
[13:36]because you share one parent and then you don't.
[13:38]And then the trials and tribulations also,
[13:41]the distance and joining of that was very intriguing to me.
[13:45]And so it's about these two sisters,
[13:47]these two half-sisters and the men in their lives.
[13:51]That's interesting.
[13:52]I know I always wonder about half siblings.
[13:54]I have steps of links, but not half siblings.
[13:56]And I always think about what that would feel like and all that.
[14:00]Steps of links do so intriguing, like Anne Patchett's commonwealth.
[14:04]They give us such a great job of, you know,
[14:07]really excavating that one.
[14:09]Yeah, who are some of your speaking of other authors?
[14:11]Who are some of your influences in your own writing,
[14:14]even though you have a bunch in the family?
[14:17]All of whose books I love actually.
[14:19]I love Vikram Seth with a passion.
[14:23]I think he taught me via his books
[14:27]of what it meant to write in the diaspora,
[14:29]like really be able to merge cultures and write in a way
[14:33]that is wholly myself for me,
[14:35]has had a lot of impact on my writing.
[14:37]I read obsessively.
[14:39]So I'd say, you know, I love Palmarie.
[14:42]I love Anne Patchett.
[14:44]I love Sarah Manguso.
[14:47]I love stories of the inner landscapes of men and women.
[14:52]You know, I love the way they respond to institution and trauma
[14:57]and joy.
[14:58]I felt I read liars by Sarah Manguso.
[15:01]And I just wanted the rest.
[15:03]I just like wanted to know the whole story.
[15:05]Like tell me what was not in the book.
[15:09]Like I want to know everything.
[15:12]But what's so interesting about a writer like that
[15:14]is that you take their body of work, you know,
[15:17]and read it, and that is what their writerly self is
[15:22]sort of presenting.
[15:23]And I think that body of work, whether it's fiction
[15:27]or nonfiction sort of forms such a beautiful cohesive whole.
[15:31]Yeah, now I have to go back and read more.
[15:34]That was my first, actually, of course.
[15:36]So what do you do when you're not working?
[15:39]Like what are some, how do you relax?
[15:41]If at all, do you relax, you know, are you a huge TV person?
[15:45]Because you work in TV or do you never watch TV
[15:47]because you work in TV or what do you like to do?
[15:50]I like to see friends.
[15:51]We do a bit of that.
[15:53]I have this little life in silvilink with my friends nearby
[15:58]and my partner.
[15:59]And we have a dog and we have a backyard
[16:02]that I would like to raise some chickens in.
[16:04]But I have, I'm too busy for that at the moment.
[16:07]I do watch a lot of TV.
[16:08]I relax by reading.
[16:10]I think which I imagine is something you're a little familiar with.
[16:14]LAUGHTER
[16:16]It's funny how I keep coming back to, you know,
[16:20]like nothing chills me out faster than there's
[16:23]this particular spot on the couch where I can look out
[16:26]at the blue sky, open the newspaper or a book.
[16:29]And, you know, I'm relaxed.
[16:31]Yeah, I think it's faster too.
[16:33]I can read just for a couple minutes
[16:35]and feel my mood totally shift whereas other things
[16:38]I feel like take longer.
[16:39]Like you can't just do, I mean, well, I don't know.
[16:42]I don't do the other things anyway.
[16:43]I was going to say you can't just like meditate for a second
[16:45]but I don't even meditate so what am I talking about?
[16:48]I think that it's a, it's a quick fix reading.
[16:51]I think so.
[16:53]Although the longer it's the better.
[16:54]LAUGHTER
[16:55]That's what I tell myself.
[16:57]Yeah.
[16:58]Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
[17:00]I think this is specific to me
[17:02]but I will say that day job, night job, you know,
[17:07]I think it's really important to not write to the trend
[17:12]and to look inside and be like,
[17:15]what am I really, really into?
[17:19]You know, what is the story I cannot not tell?
[17:23]You know, and then whatever shape that takes in whatever form,
[17:28]whether it's a story or a whole novel.
[17:30]I think that's the thing that will resonate
[17:34]and you have to love it because it's going to take long, you know.
[17:39]I mean, some people write books in very short periods of time
[17:44]but even then I think they come to it with a sense of
[17:47]truth that then takes on the forms that fiction takes on.
[17:53]And I'd say without that it's really tough to go the distance, you know.
[17:59]Here I am nine years later but, you know, it took a while.
[18:04]Good things take time, you know, there's no rush.
[18:09]Amazing. Well, any words of encouragement for people
[18:13]who have been similarly taking years to get their first novel out there,
[18:17]like why not give up?
[18:18]Like why didn't you just give up?
[18:20]I think it's important to not center it wholly to your identity.
[18:25]You know, yes, I'm a writer but I am so many other things
[18:29]and there's some refuge in that because the times that you're writing,
[18:32]you're so fully a writer that that identity can sometimes come with a lot of baggage.
[18:39]And I think it's important to find other spaces to occupy in life, you know.
[18:45]This is contradictory to maybe some of the greats.
[18:48]But this is what has worked for me to find some refuge in reading other people's work
[18:54]and having some having a life that is separate from writing.
[18:59]It has made the writing richer and it has made it easier not to give up.
[19:03]I love that. Excellent advice.
[19:05]Thank you. Well, I'm so excited for you.
[19:07]Thank you, by the way, also, for your lovely note.
[19:09]It's so sweet. Oh my gosh, I sneeved like every note.
[19:14]And I'm just so excited. I'm so excited for the book to come out
[19:17]and I'm happy to support in any way.
[19:19]And just, I'm so glad our paths crossed and I got to read such an early version.
[19:25]But Zibi, I have to say you're just such a champion for the writing community.
[19:29]And you've just been such a day when supporter of the book.
[19:32]I'm really grateful for it, but also how cool is it?
[19:35]You know, I work two minutes from your bookstore and I'm in there constantly.
[19:42]I hope we've scheduled an event with you already.
[19:44]Have we? Yes. We've had our jump on it.
[19:46]Okay. Good. Well, I hope I can be there.
[19:49]Yes. And thank you for having my bookstore and in the backyard and feel free.
[19:55]Come in and do whatever you want there for your book.
[20:00]Like, very exciting, you know, be the opposite of ruined, magnificent, not not ruined, but
[20:08]anyway, I'm really wishing you all the best and very excited. Thanks so much.
[20:12]Thanks so much. You're my first podcast and a lineup. So
[20:15]I couldn't, I couldn't have asked for better. Oh, good. Well, thank you.
[20:20]All right. All um, see you soon. See you soon. Thanks for seeing you.
[20:25]Thanks for listening to mom's don't have time to read books. If you love it, please leave
[20:32]a review and follow us on social at city Owens and at city readers.