Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter and YouTuber. He was listed in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Bhagat has produced many novels, with several of these works turned into movies, such as One Night @ the Call Center and Half Girlfriend.

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 attended the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, where he developed a passion for writing while authoring jokes for the school magazine. Bhagat graduated with a B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1995. Bhagat would then attend the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), graduating in 1997 with a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in marketing. 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 in this position, Bhagat was also focused on creating his first novel, Five Point Someone. Eventually, the publishing company, Rupa Publications, accepted his manuscript and offered to publish his work. By 2006, he was vice-president of Strategic Investment Group, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. In 2005, He published his second novel, One Night @ the Call Center. 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, Bhagat quit his banking career to become a full time author.

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 adapted by film director Rajkumar Hirani into a film named 3 Idiots 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. 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, 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 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.

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:

Novels

Standalone

Series

Non-fiction

Awards and accolades

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. In the wake of the MeToo movement in India, an anonymous woman accused Bhagat of inappropriate behavior, by sharing the WhatsApp chat they had and alleging that he persistently pursued her despite her clear disinterest and his status as a married man. Bhagat later issued an apology through his Facebook account acknowledging his transgression towards the victim and also his wife.