Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and screenwriter, the best-selling novelist in English that India has produced. His books, written in simple language about students, call centres, cricket and inter-community marriage, found millions of young readers who had not bought novels before, and several became successful Hindi films, including 3 Idiots.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Chetan Prakash Bhagat |
| Born | 22 April 1974, New Delhi |
| Age | 52 |
| Education | Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan; IIT Delhi (B.Tech. in mechanical engineering, 1995); IIM Ahmedabad (MBA, 1997) |
| Occupation | Novelist, columnist, screenwriter, speaker |
| Notable works | Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, 2 States, Half Girlfriend |
| Awards | Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay (2014) |
| Spouse | Anusha Suryanarayanan (m. 1998) |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
He was born in New Delhi into a Punjabi family. His father was an officer in the Army and his mother worked in the agriculture department of the government. He has written about a difficult relationship with his father. He was educated at the Army Public School at Dhaula Kuan.
Education
He studied mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and management at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where he was named the best outgoing student. At Ahmedabad he met Anusha Suryanarayanan, a classmate from a Tamil family; their courtship and the two families’ reactions later became a novel.
Banking
He worked as an investment banker for about eleven years, most of them with Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, and later with Deutsche Bank. He wrote his first books in the early mornings before work. In 2009 he gave up banking and moved to Mumbai to write full time.
Books
- Five Point Someone (2004): three friends who do badly at IIT. Its informal style and low price made it a phenomenon on campuses.
- One Night @ the Call Center (2005)
- The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008): cricket, business and the Gujarat riots
- 2 States (2009): a Punjabi boy and a Tamil girl who must persuade their families
- Revolution 2020 (2011): the coaching industry and corruption in Varanasi
- Half Girlfriend (2014): a boy from rural Bihar at a Delhi college
- One Indian Girl (2016), narrated by a woman banker
- The Girl in Room 105, One Arranged Murder and 400 Days, crime novels
His non-fiction includes What Young India Wants, Making India Awesome and 11 Rules for Life.
Films
- 3 Idiots (2009), loosely based on Five Point Someone, became the highest-earning Hindi film to that date. A public dispute followed over how much credit he had been given.
- Kai Po Che! (2013), from The 3 Mistakes of My Life, for which he shared the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay
- 2 States (2014) and Half Girlfriend (2017)
Columnist and Speaker
He writes columns in English and Hindi newspapers on politics, the economy and the concerns of young people, and is a popular motivational speaker. Time magazine included him in its list of the hundred most influential people in the world in 2010.
Reception
Critics have been dismissive of his prose, and he has replied that he writes for the many Indians who are learning English and not for prize juries. His sales, in the millions, changed Indian publishing by proving that a mass market for home-grown fiction in English existed.
Controversy
During the Me Too movement in India in 2018 a woman published messages he had sent her; he apologised publicly to her and to his wife.
Personal Life
He married Anusha in 1998. They have twin sons, Shyam and Ishaan, and live in Mumbai. He has spoken about losing weight through fasting and exercise and has a large following on social media.
Featured image: Chetan Bhagat at a meet-the-author event, November 2011. Photo by Vicharam, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
