Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and youtuber. He was included in "Time" magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Bhagat graduated in mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi and completed a PGP at IIM Ahmedabad. He started his career as an investment banker but left it after a few years to pursue writing. He has written ten novels and three non-fiction books. His first novel, "Five Point Someone", was published in 2004. Five of Chetan Bhagat's novels have been adapted into Bollywood films like "Hello" in  2008 (based on "One Night @ the Call Center"), "3 Idiots" in 2009 (based on "Five Point Someone"), "Kai Po Che!" in 2013 (based on "The 3 Mistakes of My Life"); "2 States" in 2014 (based on ) and "Half Girlfriend" in 2017 (based on his novel of the same name). Bhagat has also written the scripts for Bollywood films like "Kick" in 2014 and adapted his stories for the movies "Kai Po Che!" and "Half Girlfriend". Bhagat won the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay for "Kai Po Che!" at the 59th Filmfare Awards in 2014. He is also often found in  controversies on Twitter. His latest novel "400 Days" which is based on a missing child and forbidden love was released on 8 October 2021. Early life. Chetan Bhagat grew up in Naraina Vihar, West Delhi in a traditional middle-class Punjabi Hindu family. His father served as a lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army and his mother worked as 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 the age of 15. Bhagat graduated with a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from  the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1995 as a 9+ pointer. Bhagat then went on to do an master's 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. After graduating with a master's of business administration degree in 1998, Bhagat was placed through his campus at Peregrine Investments Holdings in Hong Kong. However, Bhagat 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 on and kept this boss in mind when he characterised the villain in his second novel "One Night @ the Call Center". Bhagat 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. Bhagat quit Goldman Sachs and joined Deutsche Bank. By 2006, he was vice-president, 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 five lakh (500,000) 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 300 organizations in 50 cities around the world. Screenwriting. Five of his novels have been adapted into movies. Regarding the film "3 Idiots" released in 2009 (based on his novel "Five Point Someone"), Bhagat alleged that the makers of the film had not given him adequate credit. 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 59th Filmfare Awards. Reception. Bhagat has been criticized for his writing skills. He was accused of plagiarism in 2017 for his novel "One Indian Girl", which he denied. In April 2017, the University of Delhi's decision to include Bhagat's novel "Five Point Someone" as part of the English literature syllabus was criticised. In September 2017 the university announced that they had kept this decision on hold. Sweta Kaushal from the "Hindustan Times" wrote an article requesting Bhagat to stop writing books and just focus on Bollywood. Chetan Bhagat talked about the "-isms" in society during a session  held by FICCI FLO city chapter. Bhagat, who also unveiled his new book "400 Days" at the event, was candid about his stories, his idea of nationalism and English language elitism.