Manav Kaul says writing is his primary identity; acting, directing and theatre are other parts of a creative life he tries to keep in balance. Travel helps him make room for writing and meet people who may inform his characters. In interviews published in 2023 and 2024, he described how he manages those pursuits—and why he sometimes steps back from acting.
Why Kaul calls himself a writer first
“I am 98 per cent a writer, the remaining two per cent, everything else,” Kaul told Deepa Gahlot in a Scroll interview published February 17, 2024. The line captures how he understands his work, not a ranking of the creative forms he pursues.
Kaul came to Mumbai hoping to work in films, but says a meeting with theatre doyen Satyadev Dubey redirected him toward theatre. He later formed the group Aranya, where he described disciplined rehearsal practices. His play Shakkar Ke Paanch Daane continued to be performed, while his screen appearances were more sporadic than his writing and theatre work at the time of the interview.
He has described the forms as mutually enriching: “In the end, everything complements everything else.” Theatre involves rehearsal and ensemble work; directing brings responsibility for a production’s process; screen acting means working within a director’s vision. Kaul told Scroll that on a film set he surrenders to the director’s process and holds himself to the standards he expects of actors when he directs.
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How he makes space for writing
Quiet and time
Kaul contrasted the interruptions of city life with the concentration he finds in the mountains. In Mumbai, he said, he gets up at 4 a.m. to write; in the mountains, he can work undisturbed from 4 to 10 a.m. These are his descriptions of a personal routine in 2024, not a prescription for other writers.
Choosing which work to take on
Kaul said he does not act constantly because he gets bored, and that he had let go of managers and PR. He described acting as therapeutic and said he began enjoying screen work more after starting it later in life. His account suggests a deliberate limit on show-business commitments so other work—and travel—can fit, rather than a rejection of acting.
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“I can’t act, write, produce and direct – it would be too much,” he told Scroll. He also described a direct relationship with readers through his books, without relying on celebrity book launches.
What travel gives his writing
For Kaul, travel is not simply a break from work. “I need to travel to meet amazing people, which helps me in bringing out interesting characters in my stories,” he told Gargi Nandwana in The Indian Express on March 25, 2023. He has spoken of meeting local people and experiencing different lives in different places as material for his writing.
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He put the connection plainly in a Mint interview published May 26, 2023: “travel and writing go well together”. He also said he takes breaks from acting because he wants to travel. These are accounts of his own choices, not a claim that travel is necessary for every writer.
Writing away from the city
In the Scroll interview, Kaul said he went to Scandinavia for two months and wrote two books. He also recounted being hosted by people there and elsewhere who knew his Hindi books. While shooting in London, he watched plays. Those anecdotes show how travel can combine writing time, encounters and cultural experiences for him; they are not destination advice or evidence of a formal hosting arrangement.
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Places and memories in the books
Kaul’s writing also draws on remembered places. In the Mint interview, he recalled childhood in Khwaja Bagh, Baramulla, moving to Hoshangabad, and returning to Kashmir in 2016 and 2022. Mint connected those memories and returns to Rooh, a work of fiction it described as feeling personal. That connection is rooted in Kaul’s own recollections; it should not be taken as a generalized political account of Kashmir.
The Indian Express interview discussed Titli, which Kaul said was influenced by his reading of Naja Marie Aidt and is set partly around Landour and Copenhagen. He resisted reducing the book to a travelogue: place is part of the work, but not its whole category.
Books mentioned in the interviews
For readers who want to start with a book discussed in the 2024 interview, Scroll identifies Under the Night Jasmine as the English translation of Antima. It also names Theek Tumhare Peechhe and Tumhaare Baare Mein.
Scroll reported Kaul saying that 13 books had been published since 2016 and that his first, Theek Tumhare Peechhe, was in its 17th reprint at the time of the 2024 interview. Mint described him as having 10 books in Hindi in 2023. These dated figures refer to different publication moments and scopes, so they should not be combined into a current total.
Mint identified Rooh as a Penguin Random House India title and reported a length of 149 pages and a price of ₹499 in May 2023. That is a dated listing, not a current price or guarantee of availability.
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