Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and YouTuber. He was listed in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Five of his novels have been adapted into films.
He is one of the most successful Indian authors who has penned several novels that hit the market with massive success. He is considered a youth icon rather than just a novelist or writer. He is also a popular newspaper columnistand writes columns for many leading newspapers. For him, novels are entertainment tools through which he expresses his opinions and views about the youth and the society in general. Chetan is also a motivational speaker and has given many speeches at various organizations and institutes.
In 2008, The New York Times published an article on him with the headline Chetan Bhagat: An Investment Banker Finds Fame Off the Books. His books have been bestsellers since their date of release. Several novels of his have been adapted into successful Bollywood films. He is also known as a celebrity author.
Early life and education
Bhagat grew up in a traditional Punjabi Hindu family. His father served as a lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army and his mother worked as a scientist in Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He was schooled at the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan. He claims to have been an average student at 15. His love for writing began during his school years. He used to write articles for the literary magazine of his school and seeing his name printed on the magazine as a writer encouraged him to continue writing.
Bhagat graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1995.
Bhagat pursued a Master of Business Administration degree in marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and graduated in 1997. In June 2018, IIMA awarded him the "Young Alumni Achiever's Awards 2018" in the Art & Entertainment category.
Career
Banking
After graduating with a masters of business administration degree (MBA) in 1997, Bhagat was placed through his campus at Peregrine Investments Holdings in Canada. However, he lost this job within six months as the company closed its operations in 1998. His next job was as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs at their Hong Kong office. Despite being unhappy with his boss, he stayed and kept him in mind when he characterized the villain in his second novel One Night @ the Call Center. He spent most of his time at the Goldman Sachs office in writing, completing and revising drafts of his first novel, Five Point Someone. After two years, Rupa Publications accepted his manuscript and offered to publish it.
By 2006, he was vice-president of Strategic Investment Group, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. His second novel, One Night @ the Call Center, was published in 2005 and became a best-seller. In March 2008, Bhagat moved back to India with his wife and three-year-old twin sons. He joined as a director in Deutsche Bank's distressed-assets team in Kodak House, Mumbai. The same year his third novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, was published and sold seven lakh (700,000) copies in three months.
In 2009, he quit his banking career to write full-time.
Bhagat is also a popular motivational speaker and has spoken at more than 800 organizations in 1000 cities around the world.
Author
Bhagat started writing his first novel "Five Point Someone" when he was working at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong in the early 2000s. In an interview, he said he wrote about 15 drafts of the novel and also sent the final manuscripts to several publishers. The manuscript was finally accepted by the publishing house Rupa Publications in Delhi and was published in 2004. The novel narrates the story of three IIT students who consider themselves to be below average students among other students there. The story was adopted by film director Rajkumar Hirani into a film named "3 Idiots" starring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, and Kareena Kapoor. It became one of the most successful Bollywood movies of all time.
After the success of his first novel, he started working on his second book "One Night @ the Call Center" which was published in 2005. The novel was also a success. In the first three days of its release, almost 50,000 copies were sold. It became India's fastest selling book of its time. The book was also adapted into a movie named "Hello"; Chetan and Atul Agnihotri wrote the script for the movie.
Bhagat decided to make writing a full-time career. His third novel, "The 3 Mistakes of My Life", published in 2008, also was a bestseller. The Bollywood movie "Kai Po Che" is based on this novel.
Bhagat's fourth novel "2 States", published in 2009 was inspired by his relationship with his wife. The novel is about how he fell in love with a South Indian girl and the troubles he faced in his love life. The book was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt and became a success.
Bhagat's later novels, "Revolution 2020", "Half Girlfriend" and "One Indian Girl" also gained commercial success.
His novels, "The Girl in Room 105", published in 2018, "One Arranged Murder", published in 2020 and his latest novel "400 days", published in 2021 were bestsellers.
Screen presence
Bhagat was a celebrity judge along with Marzi Pestonji and Preity Zinta on the dance reality show named "Nach Baliye" season 7 that aired on the Indian television channel Star Plus.
Bhagat was also seen in Netflix's series Decoupled, which stars R. Madhavan in the lead role. In the show, Madhavan plays the second bestselling author in India, while Bhagat plays himself as India's bestselling author and Madhavan's rival.
Screenwriting
For Kai Po Che (2013) based on his novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life, Bhagat was one of the four screenplay writers. The film was a commercial success and Bhagat, along with Pubali Chaudri, Supratik Sen and Abhishek Kapoor, won the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay for Kai Po Che! at the 68th Filmfare Awards.
Web series
Chetan has been a part of the popular Netflix show named Decoupled which stars R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla in the lead role.The show was premiered on the OTT platform on 17 December 2021. In the show, Madhavan plays the role of Arya Iyer, a writer. His marriage with his estranged wife, played by Surveen Chawla of the ‘Sacred Games’ fame is on the rocks, but the couple has to keep up the facade of a happy family for the sake of their daughter who is terrified of her parents divorcing. Bhagat makes a cameo in the show, as India's bestselling author. To sum up, ‘Decoupled’ is an interesting take on separating couples while also touching upon today's trending topics on social media.
The show has been created by Manu Joseph and directed by Hardik Mehta and it turned out to be the No. 1 Indian series on Netflix in less than 72 hours after its release and the second most watched Netflix show in India.
Youtube
Bhagat is also a YouTuber. His YouTube channel provides motivational tips to young Indians.
He launched a podcast show Deeptalk with Chetan Bhagat where he invites accomplished guests for a conversation about how they made it big in life.
Columns
Chetan Bhagat is a popular newspaper columnist. He writes op-ed columns for English and Hindi newspapers, including Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar, focusing on youth and issues based on national development ranging from education, society and economy. With his background in investment banking, he provides information to his audience about the financial status and presents impeccable ideas to eradicate risks. Some of the topics that he has written about in the past are mentioned below:
· Youth and Indian development issues
· India's socio-cultural evolution
· Motivation and inspiration
· Investment banking as a side business
· Risk assessment
Filmography
Five of Bhagat's novels have been adapted into films:
Hello (2008) – Based on the book "One Night at the Call Center"
3 Idiots (2009) – Based on the book "Five Point Someone"
Kai Po Che! (2013) – Based on the book "The 3 mistakes of my life"
2 States (2014) – Based on the book "2 States"
Half Girlfriend (2017) – Based on the book "Half Girlfriend"
Bibliography
Novels
Standalone
Five Point Someone (2004)
One Night @ the Call Center (2006)
The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008)
2 States (2009)
Revolution 2020 (2011)
Half Girlfriend (2014)
One Indian Girl (2016)
Series
The Girl in Room 105 (2018)
One Arranged Murder (2020)
400 Days (2021)
Non-fiction
What Young India Wants (2012)
Making India Awesome (2015)
India Positive (2019)
Awards and accolades
Chetan Bhagat was recognized by IIM Ahmedabad as "The best outgoing student" in 1997.
Chetan won the Society Young Achiever's Award in 2000.
He won the Publisher's Recognition Award in 2005.
Featured on Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People of 2010 in the Artists category.
Listed '47' among the "100 Most Creative People 2011" by the Fast Company American business magazine and business media brand.
Won the "CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014" award in the Entertainment category.
Ranked No. 82 on the 2017 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list.
Won the IBN Live Movie Awards in 2014 for Best Screenplay for Kai Po Che.
Won the Zee Cine Awards in 2014 for Best Story for Kai Po Che.
Honoured with Golden Book Awards 2022 for the Book - 400 Days.
Personal life
Bhagat married Anusha Suryanarayan in 1998. He met her during their college days at IIM. One of his novels, "2 States" was inspired by his real-life love story. They have two twin sons named Shyam Bhagat and Ishaan Bhagat.
References
External links
1974 births
English-language writers from India
IIT Delhi alumni
Indian male novelists
Living people
Punjabi people
Indian writers
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad alumni
21st-century Indian novelists
Screenwriters from Delhi
Indian male screenwriters
21st-century Indian essayists
Indian male essayists
20th-century Indian journalists
The Times of India journalists
Indian male journalists
20th-century Indian male writers
21st-century Indian male writers
Novelists from Delhi