Surender Mohan Pathak is India’s highest-selling crime writer with 298 Hindi novels to his name. His writing career, alongside his full-time job with Indian Telephone Industries of Delhi, began in the early 1960s, with his Hindi translations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. His first short story, Sattavan Saal Purana Admi (The Man who Lived 57 Years Ago) was published in Manohar Kahaniyaan, an extremely popular magazine of its time. His first novel – Puraane Gunaah Naye Gunahgaar (Old Sins, New Sinners) was published in another widely read magazine, Neelam Jaasoos, in 1963. After this, he began publishing a series of novels with investigative journalist Sunil Chakravarty as its protagonist; Sunil Series ran into 100 books. Another popular hero created by Pathak for his second series, Sudhir Series, is private detective Sudhir Kohli. Jeet Series features a petty thief who has taken to crime driven by a heartbreak. However, Pathak’s most loved novels come from the Vimal Series whose hero Sardaar Surendra Singh Sohal is a gangster with a conscience.

Pathak’s novel Colaba Conspiracy was voted the most popular book on Amazon.in in 2014. His latest, Heera-Pheri, topped the Neilson Hindi charts this week. His books have sold millions of copies, and he has a huge fan base across the Hindi heartland.