EXCLUSIVE | Prajakta Koli on turning author with 'Too Good To Be True' at JLF 2025: 'I have been writing all my life but...'

Prajakta Koli has dabbled with many hats in her career so far. She’s one of the most successful and popular content creators and has also acted in films like Jug Jugg Jeeyo and Neeyat. She has added another feather to her cap as she turns author with her new book Too Good To Be True.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Prajakta sat down for a detailed chat about everything you need to know about her new feather.

Edited excerpts from the interview

What inspired you to write the book?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, actually. I never thought that I would have the gumption to write a book, honestly. I didn’t think that I would ever wake up one day and be like okay let’s write a book. I, during the lockdown started working on a couple of ideas. Romance story ideas for developing long form content like web shows or movies. And, I have always enjoyed writing, so I knew that I had to write romance. The book just kind of happened on the way, where when I started working on this particular story, I started working on all the writing around that as journal entries.

Because before that, I’d never made like a story pitch document or I’d never worked on a bible or I’d never worked on a storyboard or any kind of a deck or screenplay for that matter. So I just knew how to write stories in the form of blog entries because that’s what I’ve done all my life. And that’s how it began. A few blog entries in, I was like, this looks a lot chapters. And that’s how it began. When I did upload, announced this on my YouTube channel in the June of 2023 that I’m writing a book, HarperCollins reached out and they said, ‘You know what? Can we see some of the things that you’ve written?’ So I sent them the first ten chapters and they liked what they saw. So they were like, ‘you know what? We would love to collaborate and we’d love to publish your book.’ And I think I just lucked out there completely. I had not expected that my first book would be by a publisher like that. But, that’s literally how random this all was.

What were the challenges you faced while writing this book?

Everything was a challenge for me, honestly. Just the unpredictability of delivery. I am so used to kind of planning how I can deliver content that the fact that I would sit for hours on some days and have absolutely nothing on paper and then sometimes I would sit for thirty minutes and write two chapters. It was just this dynamic unpredictability that came with the whole process of writing a book that I wasn’t prepared for, but at the same time, I found it very very exciting.

I used to actually look forward to it was almost like a gamble that I don’t know what my brain is going to throw at me today and that exercise I felt like that part of my brain hadn’t been exercised in a really long time so it felt quite refreshing, but also it has to be one of the most challenging things I’ve done in my life ever. Everything about it was tough.

Why is it called Too Good To Be True?

It’s literally the first name that came to my mind when I was working. When this thought of the art of the of the story came to me, this was literally the first title that I came up with because it’s literally what the whole story revolves around. It’s about Avni, who’s my female main character and Aman, who’s my male main character. And Avni kind of spends the whole story just trying to figure Aman out, waiting for him to drop the other shoe because he seems like he is too good to be true and that happens to be the center of most of the chaos that happens with her emotionally, romantically. So I think that’s why.

Your choice of books and your favourite authors and why?

I’ve actually had a very diverse kind of history of reading ever since I was a child. I mean, obviously, when I was in school, I did the whole famous five secrets seven, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Harry Potter, all of that. But I’ve also really, really enjoyed autobiographies. I have loved reading The Diary of a Young Girl. I’ve loved reading A Princess Remembers, A Diary of a of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. A Princess Remembers by Rajmata Gayatri Devi, An Unsuitable Boy by Karan Johar. I also had a major Murakami phase where it was just everything Murakami, one after the other. It started with Norwegian Wood, then went on to Kafka on the show, men without women. When the elephant disappears, what I think about when I think about running or there was another Sputnik Sweetheart.

There was one more- A Wild Sheep Chase, I think. 1Q84 vs Killing Commendatore. I haven’t picked one up in five years now. And then I discovered the magic of romance novels, modern romance novels. So I picked up this book called Set on You by Amy Lea, and then it was just the floodgates of romance opened up for me, and I haven’t stopped. I think I’ve read more than 207 books since December 2022 and I’m actually reading one right now. It’s literally called Love Story by Lindsey Kelk. And I’m obsessed. I think I’m majorly in my romance phase right now. So it’s been quite diverse. It comes and goes, and I like that there is no one thing I really stick to. I mean, I had an Agatha Christie phase.

How does it feel, your journey as an author?

I feel like I’ve barely begun. I have one book to my name. But I’ve been working on this book since the March of 2023. I’m speaking to you in Feb 2025, it’s almost two years since I first really sat down to write this book. I mean, this idea had come to me in 2020.

But two years since I actually sat down to write it and every single day for those. All those months still, it released on the 13th of Jan this year. I felt this kind of fear, and nervousness that I couldn’t quite explain for a very long time. So now that it is out, first, what I feel is relief that I can finally detach because honestly, that whole thing about writing and then rewriting and then reading again and then writing again and then finally, you have your first draft and then you submit it and then you get your first draft from your editor. And then it’s all over again with the writing and the reediting and then the rewriting.

So, by the November of last year, I was just like, I just need this to get done. I just need it to be out now. And now that it is, I feel relieved. It’s also extremely validating because of the reactions that it’s been getting touched with. I am so happy with everything that everyone has to say about the book. Everyone who’s read the book and the kind of reactions I’m getting are extremely re reassuring and validating. I’m on a book tour right now. The kind of responses we’ve been getting for every single book signing are unexpected, to say the least. I have been doing this for ten years. I’ve been working as a content creator for ten years, but even then, I wasn’t prepared for this.

As I speak to you right now, I’m sitting at Indore Airport just trying to process what this day has been like with the way that people have actually gone out of their way to show up and show support and come talk to me so passionately about a book that is so close to my heart. Really just makes me feel extremely happy and grateful and also slightly more confident about writing my second book.

How exhausting and exhilarating was the process of writing your book?

You know, I read this quote somewhere that said that writing is not tough, sitting down to write is tough . And that really spoke to me in more ways than one. Exhilarating because sometimes not sometimes every time I wrote something and then read it back, and it surprised even if it surprised me to a tiny degree, it made me so happy that I was capable of doing something like that. I mean, honestly, I have been writing all my life but I never thought I would have the guts to publish. I said this before, I have been oversharing on the Internet for a decade now, but I still think that when anyone reads something I have written, in its literary form, I think that’s the most exposed and vulnerable, I feel. I think that’s the most one bears themselves to the readers.