Wanted to explore mental illness through Dark Circles, says Udayan Mukherjee on his debut novel

Former managing editor of CNBC-TV18, Udayan Mukherjee, on Monday said he wanted to explore mental illness through his debut novel Dark Circles.

In an exclusive interview to CNN-NEWS18's Vir Sanghvi, Mukherjee, said, "Depression is really the cancer of our times. It's unaddressed as a problem. I think the previous generation was stung by cancer, when it exploded and mental illness is really what is happening right now and exploding. So many people have it, don’t realise it."

“I think it’s exploding in this country and elsewhere. If you can explode that thing through a narrative of a regular family, I thought it might be interesting or engaging for few people,” he added.

Talking about his second book, Mukherjee said, “That book is going to be based in the mountains and there is a crime in it. It will be a Himalayan crime novel, a serious novel but it will have crime in it.”

“I would want to write something, which is based and rooted in real life, but which has a slightly greater pacy edge to it. It's not very easy to pull off, but sometime later if my writing career is supported by publishers, I would try to attempt it at some point,” Mukherjee added further.