Chetan Bhagat dismisses allegations of insulting Dumraon kings

Saying he doesn't need a controversy to become popular, author Chetan Bhagat today rubbished allegations that his latest book had insulted the erstwhile Kingdom of Dumraon of Bihar.
Bhagat insisted that the book "Half Girlfriend" was a fictional story and it just happened that one of the characters, a boy Madhav Jha, belonged to a royal family.
Media reports said that the book had angered the erstwhile royal family of Dumraon which alleged that the book portrayed them in a bad light and threatened to slap a defamation suit against the author and the publisher.
The erstwhile royals, including 88-year-old Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh and Yuvraj Chandra Vijay Singh, accused Bhagat of denigrating their family.

"There is no Madhav Jha. Apparently, there are some old kings of Dumraon and they are saying that I have insulted the Kingdom of Dumaron," the writer said.
Bhagat said that the Kingdom of Dumaron did not exist anymore and the characters in the book were all fictional.

"They (old kings) sent me a letter. I have sent them a polite letter, saying that someone has instigated you and you have wanted Dumaron to be famous. I have made the town famous," Bhagat said while addressing a programme here.
"I have never needed a controversy to become popular," Bhagat said.

Half Girlfriend is a love story between a rural boy and an urban girl penned by the author of bestsellers such as Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life.