Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat grew up in Naraina Vihar, West Delhi in a traditional middle class Punjabi family. He got his school education in CBSE stream from The Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan. His Class X school examination percentage was 76% and Class XII percentage was 85%.[16] Sharing his Class X CBSE marksheet on Twitter in August 2019, Bhagat tweeted that he "was 15, but written off – as the average student. Today, this is irrelevant....No one piece of paper can define you."[17][18]

It was in Class V that the writing bug bit Chetan Bhagat, when his class teacher forced students in his class to contribute to a students' magazine that was being launched. Bhagat submitted a small joke which ended up being published in the magazine. Seeing his name in print gave him a thrill.[19] His father served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army and mother worked in a government job in the agriculture department.

Bhagat received a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1995. He stayed in IIT Delhi's Kumaon Hostel in Room No NB 24, which is now considered lucky by hostellers as it is believed that two other published authors, besides Bhagat had stayed in the same room.[20] He was also the editor of the hostel magazine at IIT Delhi.

Bhagat then went on to do MBA in Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and graduated in 1997 with an MBA degree, and also an award for being the "Best Outgoing Student" of his batch.[21][22] In June 2018, IIMA presented the "Young Alumni Achiever’s Awards 2018" to its formidable alumni under the age of 45. Chetan Bhagat (PGP batch of 1995–97) of the IIMA received the award in the Art & Entertainment category. He shared a tweet on Twitter about his happiness on receiving this award from his college and ended it with, "Saari puraani shararatein maaf!"[23][24]

After becoming an MBA graduate from IIMA in 1997, Bhagat got his first job through campus placements with Peregrine Investments Holdings in Hong Kong. Peregrine was the largest investment bank in Asia outside of Japan at the time. However, Bhagat lost this job within six months as the company closed its operations in 1998. His next banking job was as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs at their Hong Kong office. Despite being unhappy with his boss at the bank, he stayed on with the job as no other jobs were available. Bhagat kept this boss in his mind when he characterised the villain in his second novel One Night @ the Call Center.[25] Bhagat spent most of his time in Goldman Sachs office in writing, completing and revising drafts of his first novel Five Point Someone. He worked on 15 drafts of the manuscript of his novel to fine-tune it to his satisfaction level. While working in the bank, he kept contacting publishers, who kept rejecting his manuscript. It took him two years to finally find a publisher willing to publish his book. Rupa & Co, a publishing firm based in Old Daryaganj area of Delhi accepted his manuscript and then promptly asked him to re-work it. After the required changes were made, the novel Five Point Someone was finally published in 2004, when it was declared to be a best-seller.

Bhagat then quit Goldman Sachs and joined Deutsche Bank. By 2006, he was vice-president, Strategic Investment Group, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong[26] and two of his novels had been published and become best-sellers — Five Point Someone (2004) and One Night @ the Call Center (2005). Both novels sold a combined one million copies. The entire print-run of 50,000 copies of One Night @ the Call Center was sold within three days, setting a record for India's fastest-selling book. In March 2008, Bhagat shifted back to India with his wife and 3-year-old twin sons after spending more than 10 years in Hong Kong. He joined as director in Deutsche Bank's distressed-assets team in Kodak House, Mumbai. The same year his third novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008) was published and sold five lakh copies in three months. The novel became a best-seller and Bhagat became "the biggest-selling English-language novelist ever in India" by 2008.[27]

Bhagat continued to work as an investment banker in 2008 in Deutsche Bank, Mumbai putting in 12 hours in the office from 8 am to 8 pm. His day job would keep him busy analysing the financial reports of loss-making companies and bad loan portfolios of other banks that Deutsche Bank may eventually acquire. He kept a low profile in the bank despite having three best-sellers to his credit. Neither the head of corporate communications in the bank, nor the HR head were aware that Bhagat worked with them in their Mumbai office.[25]

By August 2008, Bhagat was earning as much from his writing, as he was from his bank job. He had three successful best-seller novels and two movies based on his novels were being shot. It was in 2009 that Bhagat quit his international investment banking career to devote full-time to writing.

Bhagat considers writing to be a flexible career which "you can do it anywhere. I write in trains, planes, cars. When I am in the middle of it, I sometimes take a break to write full time." He accepts the fact that his personal life suffers at times because of his professional commitments.[28]

Bhagat thinks his "writing skills are okay" and that he always has a good story to tell that "deals with reality – things that happen in our day-to-day existence. I am not judgmental, my characters in the book are not perfect, and they do falter. Pre-marital sex, tiff with the boss, job issues – all these things happen, I talked candidly about it when no one was speaking." He considers that the best aspect of his writing is the mails that he receives from his fans. Though he is not able to answer many of those mails, but "part of my stories come from there."[29]

Bhagat says that he does not "do the typical literary stuff," and that there are many brilliant writers in that category. He feels that "modern India is interesting enough and frankly more relevant. My stories are usually about people and their inner conflicts – so what they wear and eat is less relevant than what they think and feel." On who are his target readers, he comments that, "Anyone who is Indian – young or young at heart. I address the youth – their concerns... Young readers like what I say and the way I say it; their parents read my novels to find out what their kids like...or are like." About his characters he says, "my characters and situations are not stereotypically Indian as those in novels aimed at Western audiences. They are essentially Indian in their thoughts and motivations." On why he started writing fiction, Bhagat says that his writing "came at a point in life where I had achieved what everyone around me had wanted me to achieve but there was still a gaping hole in my 'life satisfaction'. I decided to listen to my inner call and wrote. Why I write fiction is because I love entertaining people." He considers that "the youth may not be ritualistic; they may hang out in cafes and indulge in hookahs but there is more to them than what meets the eye. They are India's only hope. Grown-ups have made a mess of the country." He comments that he writes to "entertain and change the world. Writing to me is my offering to God and my readers."[19]

Bhagat has also taken steps in Bollywood by writing dialogues and screenplays for Bollywood films based on his novels and also for a film not based on his novel. Five of his novels have been adapted into movies.

♦ For the film 'Hello' released in 2008 (based on his novel One Night @ the Call Center), Bhagat received two film credits — 'Additional dialogue' and 'Book'.

♦ Regarding the film '3 Idiots' released in 2009 (based on his novel Five Point Someone), Bhagat got involved in a controversy after the film's release by alleging that the makers of the film had "played" with him and adequate credit was not given to him. His name came in the end credits or rolling credits of the film. His stand was that 70% of the film '3 Idiots' was based on his book, while the film's makers said that only 2-5% of the film followed the book's story. Bhagat said that he saw the film only on the day of the premiere and that "My family sat in the theatre shocked, as sequence after sequence came from the book. 2-5% means three-six minutes, and I had told my family to look for the few FPS (Five Point Someone) moments and note them. However, there were so many that it became impossible to keep track... I was surprised and happy that FPS has made it in such a grand way."[30] However, Bhagat decided to close the matter and end the controversy by stating in his blog post 'Closing Remarks' that "While we maintain our stance on the issue, me and my fans want to move on, and we have."[31]

♦ For the film 'Kai Po Che!' (2013) based on his novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life, Bhagat was one of the four screenplay writers for the film and was closely involved in the adaptation of the book for the film. Bhagat said that the film is "fairly faithful" to the book. “People do make comparisons between the book and the film. It is difficult for a filmmaker. But there are several films that do justice to the books they were based on: The Godfather and Gone with the Wind, for examples. I think Kai Po Che! does justice to the book. It’s looking really good,” he said. Kai Po Che is a phrase associated with kite-flying, especially in Gujarat and it means: 'I have cut'.[32] The film is special for another reason for Bhagat as his then eight-year-old son Ishaan made his acting debut in the film.[33] Bhagat has said that the film is "a real film without frills". He said that, “lots of films have been made on friendship, but ours is as real as it can get. There are no flashy convertible cars and rich kids going to discotheques. It is very Indian and deals with the everyday pressures that everyone faces — making a career, achieving your goals and keeping your parents happy. The film conveys that real friendship is all about standing up for each other when the going gets tough. When we started out, many people were not sure how the film would work with newcomers, but we were always confident.” It took some time for Bhagat to write the screenplay of the film. It took him two years to write it and he said, “Though it was my book, to limit myself to two hours of movie time was a challenge. It is a simple story, but it has big backdrops. A lot of what India cares about is in it and that had to be handled with care.”[34] 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.

Bhagat says that he wants "to do only excellent work for Bollywood" and his "greatest inspiration is Gulzar, an author who has done films scripts as well."[25] He has said that the experience of writing screenplays is "less lonely than novel writing — although the collaborative method of filmmaking had its challenges." On the process of writing a screenplay, he is of the opinion that "writing a screenplay is a far more consultative process. When I write a book, I do the story the way I want it. In a book one can digress a bit whereas in a movie or screenplay, you have to be tight and not wander too much from the plot."[35]

• Featured on Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People of 2010 in the Artists category[2]
• Listed '47' among the "100 Most Creative People 2011" by the Fast Company American business magazine and business media brand[36]
• Won the "CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2014" award in the Entertainment category[37][38]
• Ranked No. 82 on the 2017 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list[39]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Chetan Bhagat

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chetan Bhagat.

• Chetan Bhagat at Bollywood Hungama
• Chetan Bhagat on IMDb
• Official website