Shenaz Treasury radiated an infectious energy when we met her at the Jaipur Literature Festival earlier this week. Wearing a printed co-ord set in orange, Shenaz who’s been a popular face on TV as a VJ and who has acted in films like Ishq Viskh and Delhi Belly, has now turned author with her book All He Left Me Was a Recipe. An ideal pick for Valentine’s Day, the part fact-part fiction book is all about the mantra of finding Mr Right, rules of love, the lessons learnt in life and more. On a sunny afternoon in the Pink City, we had a heart-to-heart with Shenaz.
The book starts on a very interesting note. We learned that you used to take money from people and tell them stories! We would love to hear that story.
(Bursts into laughter) You know ever since I was a child, I always had stories in me; I love telling stories. And I think I have made a living in life by telling stories, be it with MTV or with doing movies as an actor or as a travel vlogger, you are still telling stories in some form or the other. And now the book. When I was a kid I would make up stories, part fact part fiction, and make the grown-ups sit on the terrace and take ten rupees from each one of them and then tell them a story. I would spend the money on Batatawada (laughs).
So that storyteller has evolved now and you have your debut book for us.
The book is something I always wanted to do. I always loved writing. I have written a screenplay, Dreading My Wedding. Yashraj read it and they liked it but they didn’t want to do that, rather they gave me the idea of three girls taking revenge on a guy, and I wrote the film Love Ka The End with Shraddha Kapoor in the lead. Not many people know about this but you know I realised it was not my concept. With screenplays, firstly they don’t pay that much and secondly, they want you to write what they like, so the creative freedom is restricted. Hence, I wanted to write a story that’s mine. So I did everything, from zeroing in on the cover to the picture to the way the title is written in the stroke of a lipstick, the broken heart with band-aid…. So the book is special and gives a different kind of satisfaction.
It gives us the Ishq Vishk vibe…
The heart and the mushy feel, right… my main thing is I want to make it into a screenplay. So let’s see.
Let’s talk about what you have for us in the book.
The book is divided into chapters that every girl will relate to. When we are dating and trying to figure out things in a relationship and we always have questions like, ‘Can a boy be threatened by a girl’s’ success?’ ‘Should every girl date a Frenchman once in their lifetime?’ Also, I loved sketching since a kid. So I would sketch and then the publishers enhanced it, so I have incorporated those here. The book also traces the journey of a girl as a kid and then a teenager and then when she grows to be an adult. At the end of every chapter there are lessons to be picked up.
Is it biographical?
It’s part fact and part fiction and it’s on you to guess which part is fact and which is fiction.
The Frenchmen part we are sure is not fiction.
Yes, that’s not fiction. (Smiles)
You have also incorporated recipes into the book. Tell us about that.
The recipes are very short and not an elaborate recipe of a dish that one can whip up like in a culinary book. It’s what they ate in that chapter, like Strawberry Gelato. The real recipe is the lesson at the end of the chapters. In a relationship, we always idolise the beginning. In the middle, we are a little disgruntled and at the end, we are so sad and upset. All our life lessons come from the end. Who I am today is because of all these breakups I have had. You are who you are because of the bad things that happened to you. Even if things have gone sour there are always things you are grateful for.
For how long has the book been brewing in your mind?
I had this idea five or six years ago and I started writing it but then the travel thing happened and I got carried away so I left it in the middle. But then I again got back to writing in the last two years and I am really happy it’s finally complete and out. The stories are interesting and it’s an easy read and some people have finished it in two days.
I am sure you don’t want to stop with this book. So what’s next?
Yes, I don’t want to stop writing and I won’t but my priority would be to see All He Left Me Was A Recipe on the screen as a major show on Netflix or Amazon Prime.