Chetan Bhagat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chetan Bhagat
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Bhagat in 2011
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| Born | Chetan Prakash Bhagat 22 April 1974 New Delhi, India |
| Language | English, Hindi |
| Alma mater |
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| Genre | Romance, realistic fiction, non-fiction, suspense, thriller |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Notable works | Five Point Someone, 2 States: The Story of My Marriage, The 3 Mistakes of My Life |
| Spouse |
Anusha Suryanarayan
(m. 1998) |
| Children | 2 |
Chetan Prakash Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, and YouTuber. He was listed in Time magazine's list of the World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Bhagat has written many novels, two of them were adapted into movies -- One Night @ the Call Center and Half Girlfriend.
Contents
Early life and education
Chetan 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 in 1997, Bhagat was placed through his campus at Peregrine Investments Holdings in Canada. However, he lost this job within six months when the company closed its operations in 1998. His next job was at Goldman Sachs, as an investment banker in their Hong Kong office. While working here, Bhagat wrote his first novel, Five Point Someone, which was published by Rupa Publications.
In 2005, he published his second novel, One Night @ the Call Center. In March 2008, Bhagat moved back to India as a director in Deutsche Bank in Mumbai. The same year, his third novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, was published. In 2009, Bhagat quit his banking career to become a full-time author.
Author
While working at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong during the early 2000s, he began writing his debut novel, Five Point Someone. In an interview, he revealed that he drafted approximately 15 versions of the manuscript before submitting it to various publishers. The manuscript was eventually accepted by Rupa Publications in Delhi and published in 2004.
The novel depicts the lives of three students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) who perceive themselves as underperformers compared to their peers. The story was later adapted into the Bollywood film 3 Idiots, directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, and Kareena Kapoor.
After the success of his first novel, he started working on his second book, One Night @ the Call Center, which was published in 2005 and was also a success. In the first three days of its release, almost 50,000 copies were sold. The book was also adapted into a movie named Hello, with Bhagat and Atul Agnihotri as writers.
Bhagat would start his full-time career as a novelist with his third novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, published in 2008. This novel would see wide success, with the film Kai Po Che being based on its story.
Bhagat's fourth novel, 2 States, was published in 2009 and drew inspiration from his marriage and wife. The novel revolves around a young engineer falling in love with a South Indian girl and the tribulations of this relationship. The book was adapted into a successful movie of the same name starring Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.
Bhagat's later novels Revolution 2020, Half Girlfriend, and One Indian Girl also gained commercial success.
Bhagat's is still active as an author, producing The Girl in Room 105 in 2018, One Arranged Murder in 2020, and his latest novel, 400 Days, in 2021.
Screen presence
Bhagat was a celebrity judge, alongside Marzi Pestonji and Preity Zinta, on the dance reality show Nach Baliye season 7, which 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 portrays 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.
YouTube
Bhagat is also a YouTuber. His YouTube channel provides motivational tips to young Indians.
He launched a podcast show Deep talk with Chetan Bhagat where he invites accomplished guests for a conversation about how they made it big in life.
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) and Nanban (2012) – 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"
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 twin sons named Shyam Bhagat and Ishaan Bhagat.
