12 Years Too Old : Chetan Bhagat's Recipe for Red Flags

The book cover

Hey Gals, Gossip Gal is back to welcome you to chapter three of your favourite series!

This time, the boiling garam chai is about a plot of a novel that seems to glorify a problematic age gap dynamic.

Spotted: A best-selling Indian writer has spoiled his comeback with the release of his trailer. The book description will reveal not just his identity, but maybe the entire plot. This is the official description of the book on the website of Harper Collins.

“He’s 33. She’s 21.

He’s a struggling stand-up comic. She’s a rising star in private equity.

He’s divorced. She’s never had a boyfriend.

He’s Punjabi. She’s from a conservative Jain family.

They shouldn’t be together. But they can’t stay apart.”

Oh, drop the mental gymnastics. It is, as usual, our not so feminist Chetan Bhagat. The writer, who is immensely famous among teenagers, has returned after 4 years since his last published book, ‘400 Days’ in 2021, which got snarky reviews on Goodreads. 

His new book, titled "12 Years: My Messed Up Love Story," a love story described as funny, emotional, and thought-provoking, is set to release on October 1, 2025. A comeback with the same mission of giving major icks to his readers, but this time with a plot that has drawn all the side eyes to itself. So, the plot revolves around a female protagonist who is 21, and the male protagonist, who is 33. 

Read Issue 002 of The Galsight Magazine for free here!

A 33-year-old divorcee drooling over a 21-year-old girl… I think we understand and empathise with the man’s ex-wife after all, don’t we? Thanks for uniting the Indian feminists once again, Chetanji! A 33-year-old man is a full-blown adult compared to a 21-year-old woman, who, unsurprisingly, hails from a conservative Jain family, which reinforces the fact that she is, in fact, a prude. For a writer, your imagination of women is very limited. Or maybe, you simply write what sells, even if it is sexual grooming and misogyny, right? Because it's convenient and has masala— the masala that misogynists are going to throw their money at. 

Tired tropes of a “dashing, charming, Punjabi mummy’s boy”, paired with a prude, conservative woman, who will literally and metaphorically represent “written by a man” energy, will make a comeback along with Chetan Bhagat. “She’s never had a boyfriend” Yes, of course, Mr. Chetan, all your female protagonists are at either extremes— inexperienced or having multiple affairs at the same time. His teen fans will go grey before his female characters show any shades of grey in their personality. After all, how else will her Messiah-cum-boyfriend lead her to her life’s purpose and show her what true grooming love looks like? 

For the gals who are lost, grooming refers to an older or more powerful person deliberately targeting, manipulating, conditioning, or exploiting someone younger and more vulnerable (often a minor, but not always) to make them compliant in a relationship, usually for sexual or emotional control. While the age gap itself remains legal, it's the power imbalance and maturity gap between the lovers that waves a red flag to me. 

Grooming is nothing new in India, fancified by many public figures, Bollywood movies, and daily soaps, and plots like these in 2025 not only normalise it for predators and the society at large, but also teach young women to mistake red flags for red hearts! While grooming is a punishable act, it is widely normalised in a society like ours, where women and minors are still far from protected. 

When Harper Collins India posted the announcement on their official handle on X, the trailer was rightfully dragged online and called out by the concerned audience. Some users called it creepy, some called it outdated, and some even judged Chetan for still living in the 2000s. One X user wrote, “He's ancient. She's barely legal. This shouldn’t have been written.” Another commented, “Yes, let’s normalise creepiness and turn it into a Bollywood film next.”

Chetan Bhagat's response tweet

Chetan replied to the backlash by accusing the netizens who were calling out his book of elitism. He claimed that people have no problem with the age gap dynamics when it comes to TV serials, movies, web series and songs, but books. He continued to say that reading was a cool thing of elites, but now everyone is reading, so they have a problem. One “woke” word against another, right? But Chetanji, are the critics elitist, or was that a tough pill to swallow? Too harsh, or too real?

Allow me to break it down for you. The issue is not the reading or the readers, but rather the content you will be publishing for young minds to read - grooming. You are writing about grooming in a positive light and aggrandising it, which is misleading for the naive side of your audience and worse, imitable to the sexist side. While you only stand to make money— better small than big this time— your young fan base, full of teenagers and young adults, stands to lose much more. Be it the repetitive writing or the problematic plot, I hope this book drives more readers away from bookstores than pirate copies ever have!

And that’s the tea for the gallipops! See you with new feminist drama soon~

xoxo,

💋 Gossip Gal💋

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