Chetan Bhagat(Hindi: चेतन भगत), (born 22 April
1974) is an Indian English language author. He is seen as a youth
icon, and not merely an author. He is the author of four best
selling novels;
Five Point Someone -
What not to do at IIT ,
One Night @ the Call Center,
The Three Mistakes of My
Life and
2
States - The Story Of My Marriage. He has also written the
script of
Hello, the Bollywood
movie based on One Night @ the Call Center.
He studied
in The Indian Institute Of Technology and the
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad
(IIM). He is largely popular among the Indian
youth.
Writing Style
Chetan's first has explored India in different ways in all the four
books. Highlighting various aspects of the country. He has followed
a pattern with his books by naming the protagonists after Lord
Krishna Hari, Shyam, Govind and now Krishna. Also he has used a
number in the titles of each of his book.(eg. 'five' in the first,
'one' in the second, 'three' in the third and 'two' in his latest
book.)
In response to poor reviews from critics, Bhagat describes himself
as being in the entertainment business rather than the literary
one. His target audience is intended to be young Indians.
He is a columnist with
Dhainik
Bhaskar &
The Times Of
India, and writes on political issues.
Novels
1.
Five Point
Someone - What not to do at IIT was his first book. It's a
story of three
IIT Delhi students- Hari,
Ryan and Alok who come from three different backgrounds. The book
is about their years in
IIT Delhi and how
they cope with the pressures of studies, family pressure and love
and friendship. Highly acclaimed by both critics and readers, the
book got Chetan Bhagat, a good reputation as a realistic fiction
writer. It was adapted into a play by the theatre group "Madras
Players". This book now being adapted into a movie called The
Three Idiots which stars some of the
biggest names in Indian film industry like Aamir Khan, Kareena
Kapoor and R Madhavan.. though Chetan Bhagat has stated that he was
not involved in the scriptwriting in any way.. It is directed by
Rajkumar Hirani, starring
Aamir Khan,
R.
Madhavan,
Sharman Joshi,
Kareena Kapoor, and
Boman Irani in pivotal roles. It is slated for a
release on December 25, 2009.
2.
One Night @ the Call
Center, was released in India in October 2005 and continues to
be a bestseller as of January 2008. It is his second book about six
people who work at a Call Center and about a night when they
receive a call from God. Noted
Bollywood
film director
Rohan Sippy bought the
rights from the author Chetan Bhagat, but later Sippy let the
rights pass on to director
Atul
Agnihotri, brother-in-law of Salman Khan. The movie version of
the novel is titled as
Hello
starring Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Amrita Arora, Esha
Koppikar, Gul Panag, Sharman Joshi. Chetan worked directly on the
script of the movie, moulding it to fit the silver screen. However,
the film was a big box-office failure.
3.
The 3 Mistakes of My
Life is Chetan's third book, about cricket, religious politics
and rebellious love. About how 3 friends get caught in a tangle to
earn some money and fame, and how they sort it out. The book was
published in May 2008 and had an initial print-run of 200,000.
The novel
follows the story of three friends and is based in the city of
Ahmedabad
in western India
. making him
the best selling English Novelist in
India's history. Farhan
Akhtar's Excel Entertainment have bought the rights for making
a movie based on this, and it will be directed by Abhishek Kapoor
of
Rock On! fame.
4.
2 States - The
Story Of My Marriage, is about how love marriages work in India
and is again typical of him in the first person. It is like his
first book
Five Point Someone expected to be inspired by
his own life.The publishers
Rupa &
Co. have ordered an unprecedented two hundred tonnes of paper
for the first print of this highly expected book.
Writing style
His writing style is largely similar in all the three novels, till
date. However, it is seen that the seriousness of the novels
gradually went on increasing. Each novel has the basic character
set. The Protagonist is a very normal kind of boy whom any Indian
teenager can easily relate to. He is moderate in terms of thoughts
and views and is not to assertive. However the agnostic stance of
the Lead character in Three mistake is an exception. Besides, a
special importance to sex is given in each of his books. The
friends of the Protagonist are also of very common nature. The
girls in the novels are shown in virtual bondage by their
respective families. Yet even the girls can be easily compared to
an average Indian girl. Thus, the novel has no weird characters and
is really set in a typical Indian setting. The characters are all
typical neighbourhood characters and this is what makes the novels
a success.Chetan is known to give a numerical or a number to all of
his book titles to date(5,1,3,2).When asked about this Chetan
replied 'I'm a banker,i can't get numbers out of my head."
As a columnist
He wanted to write beyond the novels and take on youth based
issues, something he has done since he left the bank. He has an
op-ed column in Dainik Bhaskar, one of the biggest Hindi newspapers
and Hindustan Times, a leading English daily. He brings out
important issues and his takes on what will make a progressive
Indian nation. He says "The main purpose of the books and films is
to entertain, but the columns allow me to give my views on how the
nation should be run." He also does several events/talks across the
country – with the aim to motivate and inspire youngsters in
smaller towns.
Some of his columns have been discussed about, in the Parliament
too. Even these articles are written in plain English so that it
could get mass readership. He is an educated individual who
believes he can take part in the country's progress with the help
of his talents. His efforts are paying off too. He also visits many
Educational Institutions often & inspires the students with his
speeches. His speech 'Spark' in Pune has been really famous and was
translated and published in different newspapers. The speech was
given at the inauguration of a college year and is meant for the
youth. It tells the youth to take life lightly yet to work it out
well.
Apart from being a columnist, he is also a guest speaker at various
colleges and institutions across India.
Personal life
Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi and studied in the Army public
school.
He
has done his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the prestigious
IIT Delhi and then did his MBA from
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad. He in fact received the prestigious award
of "The Best Outgoing Student" in IIM-A. He worked as an Investment
Banker with Deutsche bank for eleven years in Hong Kong and moved
back to Mumbai with his wife Anusha in 2008. Later he gave up his
job to devote his entire time to his writings. He is married to
Anusha who is a Tamilian, who was his classmate in IIM. Anusha
works for a UBS,she is currently the COO of UBS. The couple have
twins Ishaan and Shyam. He is health conscious and practices
yoga.
Awards
- Society Young Achiever's award in 2004.
- Publisher’s recognition award in 2005.
Bibliography
Film Adaptations
References
Footnotes
- I liked the final script of ‘Three Idiots’: Chetan
BhagatThaindian NewsRetrieved on 209-02-11
External links
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