British author Jeffrey Archer, who wrote several bestselling novels, died at 86 on Monday. He died “suddenly and peacefully at his home between writing sessions”, as per his publisher HarperCollins. He’s already completed Adam and Eve, touted as his final novel after a publishing career of 50 years. A fan of Indian author RK Narayan, he had a rather love-hate relationship with India, particularly the Hindi film industry.

When Jeffrey Archer called Bollywood ‘a bunch of thieves’

“Just look at your Bollywood! These bunch of thieves have stolen several of my books without so much as a ‘by your leave’. Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl and Khudgarz, and several others,” alleged Archer in an interview back in 2015. He was in the process of pitching his 2011 bestseller Only Time Will Tell to Hollywood and Bollywood production houses for a film adaptation.

While he claimed several Hollywood companies wanted the rights of the book, he had also been looking for an Indian partner. “And that does not mean some second-rate Bollywood idiot who goes around saying he’s a Bollywood star producer and then he is not! It’s true! What can I say? Such has been my Indian experience many times,” he told DNA, laughing.

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Archer claimed that Manish Sharma’s 2011 crime comedy Ladies vs Ricky Bahl was based on his 1976 bestseller Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less, which also revolved around three people who’ve been conned trying to frame and get back at the conman. While Ranveer Singh played the titular character of the conman, the three people’s genders were switched to women he’d wooed in order to scam them.

Anushka Sharma, Dipannita Sharma, and Parineeti Chopra played the three women in Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, with the film being Parineeti’s acting debut. It was produced by Yash Chopra’s production house Yash Raj Films, and marked the reunion of Ranveer and Anushka after his 2010 acting debut, Manish Sharma’s hit romantic comedy Band Baaja Baaraat.

Archer also claimed that Rakesh Roshan’s 1987  directorial debut Khudgarz was based on his 1979 bestseller Kane and Abel. Like the book, it revolved around two feuding brothers, played by Shatrughan Sinha and Jeetendra. Co-written by Mohan Kaul and Ravi Kapoor, it was also produced by Roshan. The cast of the action film also includes Amrita Singh, Govinda, and Neelam among others.

Jeffrey Archer on his official collaborations with Bollywood

Despite his unpleasant encounters with Bollywood, Archer remained endlessly fascinated with India. He began selling the adaptation rights of his book officially. Producer Sheetal Talwar bought the rights to his 1984 bestseller First Among Equals and short story A La Carte from the 1988 collection A Twist in the Tale for a reported sum of Rs 1.5 crore, as per a Mumbai Mirror report.

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While he planned to adapt the former into a high-budget television series, that never saw light of the day. Kussh Sinha, son of Shatrughan Sinha and brother of actor Sonakshi Sinha, was supposed to make his directorial debut with that show. He ended up directing his first feature only as recently as last year with horror film Nikita Roy, starring Sonakshi in the titular role.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta was also in talks with Archer to buy the adaptation rights of Kane and Abel. However, while that never materialized either, Mehta had already directed a TV show loosely based on the book. Lakshya (1999) starred Kay Kay Menon and Sachin Khedekar among others. He wanted to remake the show into a film, starring longtime collaborator Rajkummar Rao, back in 2014.

Back in 2015, Archer was even planning a book set in India, and particularly Bollywood. Consisting of eight chapters, the novel was supposed to have a Bollywood heroine at the centre. However, that book never saw light of the day either. However, Archer enjoyed massive popularity in the country, partly thanks to widespread piracy, which gave him the moniker, “The Lord of the Paperbacks”.