M Chandrakumar drives an auto, scripts a film

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It takes 27 calls and hours of waiting before "Auto Chandran" finally finds the time to speak with me. He is rushing to Chennai Airport to catch a flight to Venice, a journey he never imagined he would make.

Chandran, whose full name is M Chandrakumar, is a 53-year-old auto-rickshaw driver from Coimbatore. And, he is the author of Lock Up, the book on which the Tamil film, Visaranai, is based. The film, a thriller directed by Vetrimaaran and co-produced by actor Dhanush, is the first Tamil movie to have entered the competitive session at the Venice International Film Festival.

Written in 2006, it is the story of a harrowing experience Chandrakumar had when he was in his 20s and was working in a hotel in a village near Guntur (Andhra Pradesh). He and some others was arrested by the police and kept in lock-up for 13 days in what he calls was a "case of doubt". During this period, they were allegedly tortured mercilessly. "It was a 10x10 feet room. The month was March. I can never forget that nightmare," he says.

After he was released, he returned to his hometown, Coimbatore, and decided to drive an auto-rickshaw to make ends meet. But he could not forget those two traumatic weeks.

Years later, he narrated the incident to his friend, Jnani, who asked him to write it down. The result was Lock Up. The 160-page novel, published in 2006, describes the atrocities meted out by the police on the voiceless. The book received the 'Best Document of Human Rights' award in June 2006 by a human rights body, then headed by Justice V R Krishna Iyer. Life in prison, says Chandrakumar, exposed him to a whole new world where he heard many "heart-wrenching and horrible" stories.

One of his friends who worked with film units gave the novel to Vetrimaran to read. The director later contacted Chandrakumar for permission to make a film based on it. It is he who has invited Chandrakumar - better known as "Lock Up Chandran" among Coimbatore auto-drivers - to its screening in Venice. He received an honorarium for the film and a credit in the film's titles.

Chandrakumar has since published six more stories. He was born on June 30, 1962 and moved to Coimbatore after his father sold off the farm he owned. Times were tough and he dropped out of school after Class X. But "life has been my teacher," says Chandrakumar who loves to read. He says he is inspired by Maxim Gorky and Chingiz Aitmatov.

Chandrakumar's day begins with a morning walk and yoga. He reads the newspapers before heading to Jeeva Auto Stand at 8 am. His job as an auto-rickshaw driver fetches him between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 a month.

As a trade union worker, he has strong views on a host of issues, particularly those concerning the downtrodden and the working class. While waiting for customers and when stuck in traffic jams, he jots down those thoughts in a small notebook. Who knows when they might trigger another book.