Tarun Tejpal, one of India’s most famous firebrand journalists, takes a close look at the life of contract killers in his newest novel, The Story of My Assassins. But instead of portraying them as villains, Tejpal ends up making his readers empathise with them. For, the killers live in a murky world of rural India. This is a far cry from the picture of India, a rising superpower.

“I have attended many conferences where talks of India Shining were held and I usually debunk that idea because we are talking here of 100 million of Indians. What of the 600 million who are not even educated, fed or clothed?” said the Tehelka editor, at the release of his book at Crossword, Kemps Corner, on Thursday.

Known for spearheading a string of exposes, the Tehelka editor lays bare every crippling divide of language, wealth and class in the 21st century India in his latest work of fiction. The Story of My Assassins—a sharp departure from his debut novel The Alchemy of Desire— is a multi-layered novel that skillfully slashes through the subcontinent’s dubious spiritual serenity.

He went on to criticise the multiplex culture which is churning out films only for a selected audience. “I am afraid that their idea of a peasant is drawn from the Raj Kapoor films of the ’60s and ’70s. It’s wonderful to look up to that era only for cinematic works,” says Tejpal. The filmmaker—instead of living in protected little bubbles—should be making movies that would appeal to people from different economic and cultural backgrounds and not just to urbane viewers, he said admitting that he too has lived a privileged life.

In fact, the idea for The Story of My Assassins came up from the kind of life he is living. “My wife, children and I are constantly accompanied by a bunch of carbine-wielding bodyguards. That’s precisely what gave me the idea to write this book,” Tejpal said. The launch had filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and Shoma Chatterjee doing the readings alongside the journalist-turned-novelist.