Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu on their new children's book Inni and Bobo Find Each Other: 'Wanted it to be as evocative as possible'

Actors Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu are embarking on a new adventure. They are working on a series of children’s books revolving around a girl named Inni and a dog named Bobo. The character of Inni is based on their daughter, who is four and a half years old, and is in love with animals. Published by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, the first book in this series launches on 25 April.

On this occasion, we caught up with the couple over a Zoom call and learnt about their book, childhood, pets, parenting style, and something very close to their heart – encouraging the adoption of stray dogs.

Excerpts from an interview:

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What were some of your favourite books as children?

Kunal: I didn’t read many books as a kid. And I wasn’t one of those kids whose elders read out to them at home. I was always told a lot of stories, and I used to love listening and imagining. My Nani, my Dada, my mum, my dad, and my aunts – they all told me stories. My dad used to act out scenes, and change his voice for different characters in the stories.

Later when comic books came into my life, I didn’t feel like reading. I used to look at the pictures, whether it was Chacha Chaudhary or Suppandi, or Archies a bit later. I cannot remember what the stories were because I saw pictures, and made up my own stories.

Soha: I remember reading a lot when I was growing up – mainly authors like Enid Blyton, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, O’Henry, and Oscar Wilde. Of course, the Nancy Drew novels! The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) by Beatrix Potter was read out to me, and so was Goodnight Moon (1947) by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd. It’s funny, you know, my mother used to read Goodnight Moon to me when I was little, and now I read it to my daughter.

My grandfather – my mother’s father – used to teach me nursery rhymes in Bengali. When I got a bit older, he and my grandmother began telling me stories by Rabindranath Tagore.

Who are some of the new writers that you have discovered since you began picking up children’s books for your daughter?

Soha: We use the school library a lot. Whenever we want to speak to our daughter about a topic, we usually find that someone has written a book about it. The librarian and the teachers are also very helpful. Recently, Ruskin Bond and Sudha Murthy have kindly sent us some books. It was a very sweet thing for them to do – to share their books with fellow writers.

Kunal: Julia Donaldson is one of Inaaya’s favourite authors. She has a lot of rhyming words, and Inaaya loves the illustrations. When I read to her, or when Soha reads to her, she is very drawn to the pictures. I remember how Inaaya would excitedly point out to Julia’s books.

How did you end up writing a children’s book?

Kunal: Inaaya and I used to play this game where I used to ask her to give me any three characters. I would give her a story in return. For example, she would say: unicorn, rabbit, and garden. I would take those elements, and use my imagination. I started using different voices. It was a fun thing for us to do together. One of those stories became this book.

At times, Inaaya would ask, “Why can’t I see pictures of the stories you are telling me?” I asked Soha if we should get someone to illustrate maybe one or two stories for her. She said, “Why don’t we create books so that we can share them with other children too?” That’s how we began working on Inni and Bobo Find Each Other. It’s the first one in a series of books.

How did you figure out the right tone and vocabulary for your readers?

Soha: I like to write in a literal way for children; sometimes, metaphors can be really confusing for them. We wanted the book to be simple so that children don’t have to keep asking “What does this mean?” every time they encounter a word. There are a couple of words that might be challenging for them but those could be opportunities to learn.

That’s why Bobo’s fur is described as being brown like a chocolate biscuit. We also wanted to bring in emotions like anticipation, nervousness, excitement, and so many others, into different parts of the book. With children, it’s important to have pictures that are arresting and language that is straightforward. Rituparna Sarkar did a really good job.

Did you approach Rituparna Sarkar to illustrate, or was that Penguin’s idea?

Soha: When we started working on the book, we were quite unfamiliar with the world of children’s book illustrators in India because we had never interacted with them. Penguin came up with a few options, and we tried out a bunch of them. Finally, Rituparna Sarkar worked out for us. She really understood our language and our vision in terms of the colour, the style, and the expressions. She was very open to dialogue because we had a certain kind of thought process around Inni being based on Inaaya, and the world we wanted to paint.

The book opens with a cute illustration of a dog, and a dedication that says: “For Inaaya, and in remembrance of Masti.” There seems to be a personal connection here with a dog that you had, and was special to you. Could you tell us about Masti?

Kunal: Unfortunately, we lost Masti in November 2021. It was sudden and very tough. Soha and Masti came into my life in the same year. It was 2008. I met Masti just two months before Soha. I consider Masti my first daughter. I was living alone when I met Masti, and it was the first time that I was independently taking care of a life other than mine. She was a beagle. Somebody had brought her to me. She owned the house from the day she came in. She was family to me. Losing her was hard. My whole love for animals got intensified because of Masti. The book would have been incomplete without paying tribute to her.

You now have two dogs in Mumbai, and four dogs in Pataudi. Is that right?

Soha: It’s a bit of a long story. World For All is an organisation that we have been working with for a few years. They are based in Mumbai. They rescue dogs and cats. They do adoptions and fostering, and find them homes. We have adopted two dogs from them. One is called Mishti, and the other one is Nimki.

Kunal: When the first one came to us, she was called Sushi. I changed her name to Mishti. Now what happened is that Masti was an older dog when Mishti came in, so Masti was not very happy with the idea of having a new puppy in the same house. Masti had started acting out. This was a big problem for me because I couldn’t bear the thought of just giving Mishti away. By then, she had already spent two and a half to three months in the house with us.

On the other hand, Masti was diagnosed with depression. Doctors told us that she was probably finding it difficult to adjust to Mishti’s presence. When Soha’s mum (Sharmila Tagore) was visiting, I told her what was going on. She said, “Oh my God! I’ll take her happily.” A year later, Amma said, “I think Mishti feels alone. Maybe she needs a friend.”

I was fostering another dog at this time. She came with a name that I don’t remember now, but I renamed her Nimki. I told Amma she could have Nimki if she wanted to. Amma said, “Yes, of course!” Mishti and Nimki have now become Amma’s dogs. They live in Delhi.

Besides these two, there are four dogs in Pataudi on the farm that Soha’s family has. Bhai (Saif Ali Khan) has named all of them – Sheroo, Percival, Lancelot and Gallahad.

Soha: The last three are named after King Arthur’s knights. We don’t have any dogs in Mumbai now. We lost Masti just a few months ago. It’s going to take time, especially for Kunal. Also, we thought that we should wait so that Inaaya is also emotionally ready to actively look after pets, take them for walks, clean them, understand that pets are not toys.

In your book, Inni wants to adopt all the puppies at the animal shelter. Her father says, “Dogs are not toys.” He wants her to understand that she’s going to be responsible for another life. Tell us about the thought process that went into this.

Kunal: This bit came from my own childhood. When I was growing up, I really wanted a pet. My mum wasn’t a big dog lover but I still got one home. She later fell in love with that dog. Unfortunately, we lost that dog too early. I was very hands-on but I also saw that my parents had to spend a lot of their time helping me. I was living with them at that time.

The responsibility part also became really clear to me when we started doing “adoptathons” with World For All. We used to help find homes for almost a hundred puppies and kittens every year until the COVID-19 pandemic hit us. Over time, I began to notice that people who came to these adoptathons were more in love with the idea of having a cute pet than doing the actual work of taking care of a pet. In a week or fortnight, they would realise that having a pet is not their cup of tea. Some people would return the pets; others just left them on streets.

One of the most beautiful things in your book is how Inni feels almost like a parent when she is with her dog Bobo. She has the ability to provide comfort, safety and protection to her pet. Could you tell us about Inaaya's relationship with animals?

Kunal: I am so happy you noticed this. Soha and I believe that parents should give children a lot of space for self-discovery. Growing up shouldn’t be just about following a list of dos and don’ts. Inaaya loves playing with dogs and cats. That’s why the character of Inni is based on her. In the book, when Inni is with Bobo, she learns things about herself. When she holds Bobo for the first time, she recognises that the pup looks scared. Immediately, Inni compares this to her own situation, and says, “Like me when I’m in a room with too many people I don’t know.” Children have stranger anxiety, and that’s okay. They learn to deal with fear. You will see Inni and Bobo having many more adventures in the next few books.

How many books have you planned for?

Soha: Limitless! There is so much that can happen with these two characters, so we don’t want to restrict our imagination. We have finished writing the second book, and the skeleton for the third one is ready. We have to get down to the actual writing. It will happen soon.

What are you working on right now?

Soha: I’m doing a fiction show called Hush-Hush with Tanuja Chandra for Amazon Prime. That is complete. We will hopefully be releasing that over the next two to three months.

Kunal: I have a film called Kanjoos Makkhichoos coming up with Vipul Shah. There’s a show too but I am not at liberty to speak about it. There’ll be an announcement next month.

Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist, commentator, and book reviewer.

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