PTI 
 
London, Aug 9: Two Indians are among 13 novelists in contention for this year's Man Booker Prize after the judges tore up nearly all predictions and disregarded virtually all star literary novelists.

Nikita Lalwani's first novel 'Gifted' and Indra Sinha's 'Animal's People' are among the 13-title longlist for the 50,000 pounds Prize.

A six-strong shortlist will be unveiled next month and the winner will be announced in October.

Nikita Lalwani, 33, was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff in the UK. After studying English at Bristol University, she went on to work for the BBC, directing factual television and documentaries. She lives in London with her husband and child.

Indra Sinha's 'Animal's People,' published in March this year, is set in an Indian town called Kaufpur, a fictional place of terror and dread based on the city of Bhopal, which became famous after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

The bookies installed Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach) as a 3-1 favourite to win this year's Prize.

The others in the longlist are: Nicola Barker (Darkmans), Edward Docs (Self Help), Tan Twan Eng (The Gift of Rain), Anne Enright (The Gathering), Mohsin Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Peter Ho Davies (The Welsh Girl), Lloyd Jones (Mister Pip), Catherine O'Flynn (What Was Lost), Michael Redhill (Consolation) and A N Wilson (Winnie & Wolf).

UK's bookstore Waterstone's called this year's longlist a giant-felling list. Heavyweight writers who failed to make the cut include Doris Lessing and past winners Thomas Kenneally, J M Coetzee and Graham Swift.