Rajesh Kumar (writer)
Rajesh Kumar is the pseudonym of KR Rajagopal,[1] a Tamil author of crime fiction.
Professional career
[edit]Kumar's first published story was in 1968[2] or 1969,[3] in the college magazine of Government Arts College, Coimbatore, where he earned a degree in botany.[4] He has attributed this to a prank by another student, who used Kumar's name when volunteering to submit a story for the magazine;[2] when his professor refused to allow Kumar to back out,[5] "the next day"[2] he "reluctantly" submitted "Vaazhndhu Kaatuvom", a love story.[5]
Later that year, he submitted the crime story "Unnai Vidamaatten" to a short story contest in Malai Murasu; this was the first story for which he was paid.[5]
In 1977, his work began appearing in Kumudam, starting with the short story "Idhu Nyayama".[5]
His first novel, Vaadagaiku Oru Uyir,[5] was published in 1980.[1] He subsequently told of how the editor of Kumudam had "seen a porter on a platform at Egmore Railway Station engrossed in one of [Kumar's] stories. The porter had also forgone customers just to finish the story. It was then that [the editor] decided to make [Kumar] write a novel."[3]
In 1986, his publisher asked him if he could produce a novel a month; as a result, he became a full-time writer.[5]
As of 2019, Kumar has written over 1500 novels;[dubious – discuss] his son, for whom digitizing the novels into e-books is a full-time profession, has been able to locate "around 1,000" of them.[6] He has also written over 2000 short stories, and scripts for over 250 television series,[1] as well as the 2015 film Sandamarutham.[7]
In 2019, he announced that he was negotiating with Sathya Jyothi Films regarding adaptations of his work on Amazon Prime.[6][needs update]
Early life
[edit]Prior to writing full-time, Kumar spent five years teaching, with a degree in education from Ramakrishna Vidyalaya;[4] when he grew bored with this, he worked as a sales representative for an industrial rubber goods company.[7]
Pseudonym
[edit]To avoid being confused with two pre-existing Tamil authors named "KR Rajagopal", he created a pseudonym based on the names of his sister and his sister-in-law: Rajeshwari and Ananthakumar.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Rajeshkumar's 50 Years of Writing, by Karthika Vasudevan; at Dinamani; published 26 July 2019
- ^ a b c Meet Rajesh Kumar, author of 1,500 novels, by Samanth Subramanian; published 7 September 2008; in mint; via Archive.org
- ^ a b 50 yrs on, Rajesh Kumar still thrills his readers, by Vishnu Swaroop, in The Times of India; published 18 July 2019
- ^ a b At 69, Rajesh Kumar - the king of Tamil pulp fiction is still at it, in The News Minute; published 18 June 2015; retrieved November 15, 2023
- ^ a b c d e f Raja of the whodunit; by Akila Kannadasan; in The Hindu; published 25 April 2011; via Archive.org
- ^ a b Guns & prose, by Akila Kannadasan, in The Hindu; published 30 March 2019
- ^ a b Guns, guts and glory, by Akila Kannadasan; in The Hindu; published 10 June 2015