Aditi Mediratta’s journey from crime reporting to becoming a celebrated fiction writer, screenwriter, and novelist, speaks of her creativity, and the power of storytelling across multiple mediums. Vinta Nanda talks to her…

Photography: Vinta Nanda

Location: Silk Road Coffee Company Experience

Aditi Mediratta, a former crime reporter turned fiction writer, has made a significant impact in the worlds of cinema and literature. Known for her work on Once Upon a Time in Mumbai and The Dirty Picture, Aditi has proven her versatility as an associate writer. Her novels, including The Stranger in Me and her latest release Naked, showcase her narrative voice and her ability to craft compelling stories. Mediratta's evolution from journalism to screenwriting and long-form fiction reflects her storytelling abilities, making her a powerful voice in contemporary fiction and screenwriting.

Aditi Mediratta's journey as a writer began at the age of 10, when she submitted short stories to TINKLE. Though she’s still waiting to hear back, she tells me, her passion for storytelling has only grown stronger over the years. After working as a crime reporter for the tabloid TODAY, Aditi discovered her unique talent for blending fiction with reality, which prompted her transition from journalism to creative writing. Her career took a significant turn when she worked as an associate writer on Once Upon a Time in Mumbai and later The Dirty Picture, followed by a range of other projects, including the short film The Girl in the Pink Frock.

While she enjoys writing screenplays, Aditi has always been drawn to the fluidity of structure and the importance of the narrative voice, not just as a writer but as an avid reader. This natural inclination led her to explore long-form fiction, and in 2019, she published her debut novel The Stranger in Me. Her second novel, Naked, is out too, and she continues to work on new projects, driven by the stories that constantly emerge from her imagination.

Vinta Nanda: What are you working on presently?

Aditi Mediratta: I’m trying really hard to finish a book I actually started writing in 2017. It was going well enough, but it got sidelined by other, more paying projects. Now, after publishing Naked and receiving such a great response, I really want to get another book out while I still feel like a real author. The problem is that, like Naked, this book also starts with a dead body—I seem to have an obsession, or so I'm told, with stories that start with death!

This novel starts like a murder mystery, but ultimately the idea was to leave the mystery open-ended and focus more on the journey of the protagonist, who wakes up next to the dead body. However, having done something similar with Naked, I now realize I HAVE to deliver a clear payoff here, or nobody is going to pick up a third novel!

So now I’m going back and rewriting a lot to make sure the conclusion actually makes sense. And I'm learning fast that rewriting is much harder, slower, and more frustrating than just writing! Other than that, I’m working on a biopic about a 70’s film star, and sometimes I jot down a short story idea when one pops up. Basically, my one typing finger (I type like a boomer) is constantly working and currently in a lot of pain!  

Vinta Nanda: Where did writing start for you? Do you remember the moment when you decided you were born to write?

Aditi Mediratta: As a child, my mom used to help me with most of my homework—which basically means she would do it for me! But I remember that with essay writing, I had very strong opinions. I'd be like, "No, let’s write it like this instead." So I don’t know if I was born to write, but I’ve had a point of view on writing for as long as I can remember. Everyone in my family loves to read, so I grew up surrounded by books. It seemed almost a rite of passage that one of the career options I considered as a child, alongside astronaut and genetic engineer, was writer. I also did the usual submit-short-stories-to-TINKLE thing that a lot of kids growing up in the 80s probably did—never heard back, unfortunately!

In my 20s, I tried and failed at a bunch of professions—hotel management, PR, event management, even a stint in sales and marketing—until I rediscovered writing. I started off writing for India Today’s afternoon tabloid TODAY. That’s when I discovered how good I was at making things up—or at least sensationalizing them!

It seemed appropriate to move on to legitimate fiction writing after that, leaving the fictional journalism to the next generation of reporters.

Vinta Nanda: How did the city of Mumbai greet you when you came here to make a life? Tell me about your first few days.

Aditi Mediratta: Oh my gosh, the first few days were such a whirlwind I don’t even know where to start. In fact, my decision to move to Mumbai was made just two days before I arrived, and it was a total whirlwind for everyone—me, my family, and my partner. But I was adamant. I had gotten a job by lying on my CV, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity!

So, I get here, and my first experience with Mumbai is just how incredibly generous and supportive the people are. A friend got me a place to stay with a bunch of his friends, all sharing one flat in an apartment building in MHADA. One of the girls there had her own room, but she worked the night shift, so the arrangement for me—completely rent-free—was that I could sleep in her room at night and stay until 9 a.m. the next morning. After that, I could go to my job or hang out in the living room if I had the day off. So for the first few days, I never saw this girl whose room I was staying in. I just knew she had a cat, loved reading, and had a similar taste in books because I started reading the same book she was currently reading—Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It was frustrating when she took it with her to work because I couldn’t afford to buy my own copy at the time, so I had to wait until she brought it back. Eventually, we met, became friends, and she gifted me Norwegian Wood.

Now, about my job. I had lied on my CV, saying I was based in Mumbai, but I had lived all my life in Delhi and was still living there. Anyway, I had a phone interview and was offered the job of assistant EP to, I think, a really desperate executive producer who needed someone to start right away. We agreed I would join in a couple of days, as I pretended to be traveling at the time.

So, there I was at my job, acting like I knew the city and what an EP or assistant EP even did. One of my first assignments was to go to a boutique in Santacruz called Seasons, pick up costumes for the day’s shoot at Film City, and reach the set by 10 a.m. Simple enough, except somehow Santacruz became Churchgate in my head! Well, long story short, I held up the shoot for five hours and was obviously fired as soon as I arrived.

So here I was, technically homeless and now also jobless, less than a week into my time in Mumbai. But I had already fallen in love with the city, infected with that unrealistic optimism that's just in the air here, and I was like, "I’m not going back. Something will happen." And well, many things did. Eighteen years later, I’m still here, calling Mumbai home.

Vinta Nanda: And the breakthrough?

Aditi Mediratta: It happened by such random chance. I knew Rajat Arora at the time as the writer of Zee Horror Show and CID, and being a huge horror buff and Stephen King fan, I contacted him to see if he could put me in touch with someone to help me write for horror shows. I had a bunch of scary stories, and I took printouts to show him that I could really write horror! He told me I wrote like a novelist trying to write for TV but saw some 'potential' and asked if I’d consider joining him as an assistant writer for a film he was working on. I asked if he'd pay me, and he said he would, so I was like, "OK." I played it cool, but I was ecstatic! I was getting paid to write, could pay rent, buy coffee, and write. It was perfect.

We went on to work on Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, The Dirty Picture, and a few other projects. And I finally did write a couple of novels too, after trying really hard not to write like a novelist!

Vinta Nanda: Tell us how you grew in the business, and about your journey in cinema? 

Aditi Mediratta: By just keeping at it, I guess. The growth hasn’t been meteoric or anything, but there’s been consistent work. In the meantime, I’ve worked on passion projects, a couple of which have eventually seen the light of day! :)

One thing I’ve been lucky with, regarding my growth, is the people I’ve collaborated with. They’ve either given me consistent work or recommended me favourably. Rajat, whom I wrote Once Upon a Time in Mumbai and The Dirty Picture with, still checks in with me for assignments. I have a steady retainer with someone. I’m also working on a few projects with Shonali Bose, and that’s led to a great friendship. 

So, as I recount this, I realize my journey in this business and city has been about what I fell in love with in the first place—the people.

If I can share a little anecdote from my struggling days: After being fired from my first job, I was looking for work and asked a friend for some contacts. Not only did he give me the contacts he had, but every single friend he contacted for help added to that list. At one point, I had the emails of every single director in the city! Eventually, I shared that list with another friend who moved to Mumbai later. He said, "Wow, you must have worked so hard to get these contacts; why would you just hand them over?" I told him that when I needed help, people handed them over to me, just like that—and that’s what makes Mumbai so special.

Obviously, that was years ago, but I think for the most part, the people here are still generous. I like that now I’m at a stage in my journey where I am sometimes the one offering help—whether it's feedback, contacts, etc. This makes not just the destination but the journey enjoyable as well.

Vinta Nanda: Some interesting anecdotes and an experience or two.

Aditi Mediratta: I was called to the UTV office. There I was, having what I thought was a great chat with a creative director. Then she asked me my last name, and I told her, “It’s Aditi Mediratta.” She then asked, “Where are you from?” I told her, “Delhi,” and she immediately squealed, “Oh my gosh, you’re the same Aditi who held up that shoot for 5 hours. You’re a legend here!” It was hilarious and quite the icebreaker.

Another anecdote that comes to mind is from when I was working on The Dirty Picture. I don’t know if you remember the scene where Vidya Balan’s character, when broke, eats sugar to sate her hunger. Well, that was something a friend and I had done one night when we were really hungry. There was no food in the house and no money to order anything either. We found some sugar in the kitchen, ate it solid at first, then dissolved it in water and sipped on it like it was alcohol. We sat there talking about how hard life was, and then we assured each other that it would get better.

Vinta Nanda: What was childhood like for you? And what were the days before you said to yourself that you must pack your bags and leave for Mumbai?

Aditi Mediratta: I was a pathologically shy child. I had to be forced to socialize. I don’t think I had too many friends growing up; I would just hole up somewhere reading. That made for a very happy childhood, as there were lots of books at my parents’, grandparents’, and cousins’ places. Most of my summer vacations were spent visiting libraries and reading all day. That’s pretty much how I remember my childhood—The Enid Blyton years, the Archie’s years, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys phase, and finally, the joy of discovering science fiction and Agatha Christie. Oh, and my sister was born sometime in the middle of all this, and other things like school and family holidays probably happened too.

The two days before I packed my bags and moved to Mumbai were kind of a crazy whirlwind. First, I had to break the news to my mother and my boyfriend that, by the way, I’m moving to Mumbai the day after tomorrow. There was a lot of shock, and plenty of “That makes no sense!” type comments thrown around. But after the ‘denial’ stage, they moved on to acceptance, and we figured out the logistics of where I would stay.

After that, my boyfriend went through the same stages and ended up giving me his debit card so I could withdraw from his account in case of an ‘emergency’. Unfortunately, he did not specify that ‘emergency’ did not mean “I need coffee and new boots right now,” so there were disagreements about that eventually—but that’s a story for later.

Before I knew it, I was leaving Delhi and moving to Mumbai, pretty unprepared and with everyone quite sure I would be back in less than a month. I seemed to be the only one not entertaining that possibility at all. I think I was more excited than scared. In retrospect, though the move seemed hasty, it still felt completely right.

Vinta Nanda: What would you tell aspiring writers if they came to you for advice?

Aditi Mediratta: Just WRITE. I mean, nobody can stop a writer. We don’t even take up much space—just place your laptop or notepad somewhere and start. And in between that, read. I don’t understand writers who say they don’t like to read. If you don’t have a love for stories intrinsically, how do you find the love for your own?

Also, writing can be really isolating, so keep in touch with real people now and then. Stories are happening all around us. Find them, let them seep into your consciousness, and then they will write themselves in your subconscious.

Writing the first word can be daunting—even now, every time I start a new story, it takes forever to type that first line. But go ahead and type (or write) it anyway. The rest will follow much easier.