Mumbai: If sources are to be believed, three major Indian filmmakers have approached debutant author Karan Bajaj for the movie rights of his novel Keep Off the Grass.

According to figures provided by HarperCollins, the novel’s first print run of 5000 copies has been sold within 10 days of its launch.

Bajaj is expected to announce the sale of rights to a major Bollywood production house shortly. Foreign rights of the book have also been sold to a major New York-based literary agency recently.

Industry watchers say that the novel is arguably one of the fastest selling debut novels in recent times. This is indeed remarkable given the slew of authors that released their books in the same period — Chetan Bhagat, Paulo Cohelo, Shobha De and Amitav Ghosh.

Keep Off the Grass is also a semi-finalist for the 2007-08 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Renowned author Ruskin Bond has described the book as "An entertaining account of a romp through an ever-changing yet timeless India. Wild, Witty and Wicked—but not in the least sentimental."