Will They, Won't They

De: Maulik Pancholy

Will They, Won't They is a swoony enemies-to-lovers romance that takes readers behind the scenes of Bollywood, where sparks fly between Ajit Jain, an aspiring documentarian from Queens, and Zain Mansoor, a Bollywood nepo baby from Mumbai.

Ajit Jain, a seventeen-year-old Indian American aspiring documentary filmmaker from Queens, dreams of creating meaningful art that will get him into film school. But his carefully laid plans take an unexpected turn at a wedding in India when he clashes with Bollywood nepo baby and notorious teen bad boy Zain Mansoor.

When Ajit is unexpectedly offered the chance to direct a behind-the-scenes documentary about Zain's debut film, he jumps at the opportunity—not to create a puff piece, but to film an exposé that will take down the privileged actor and secure his spot at film school.

But forced proximity on a Bollywood set changes everything. As Ajit's camera captures Zain at work, he discovers a vulnerable young man struggling beneath the weight of his father's legacy and the persona he's been forced to perform. The real Zain is thoughtful, driven, and nothing like the tabloid bad boy the world sees. A stolen kiss during a late-night motorcycle ride through Mumbai shatters Ajit's objectivity completely.

Now torn between his documentary ambitions and his growing feelings, Ajit faces an impossible choice. Should he expose Zain's truth to the world and launch his career, or protect the boy he's falling for and tell a different kind of love story—one that might cost him everything he's worked for?