Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat , is an Indian author who has written 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 Hindi movie based on One Night @ the Call Center.

Personal life

Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi and attended Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. He studied Mechanical Engineering at The Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) and then studied at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM) where he was named "The Best Outgoing Student". He worked as an Investment Banker with Deutsche bank for eleven years in Hong Kong and moved 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 was his classmate in IIM.

Writing style

Bhagat's writing style tends to be simple, with linear narratives and vivid storytelling. His protagonists tend to be named after Lord Krishna, like Hari, Shyam, Govind or Krishna. All his books have a number in the title (eg. 'five' in the first, 'one' in the second, 'three' in the third and 'two' in his latest book.) When asked about this Chetan replied 'I'm a banker, I can't get numbers out of my head."

In response to poor reviews from critics, Bhagat described the books as entertainment, rather than attempts at serious literature.

He is a columnist with Dainik Bhaskar & The Times Of India, and writes on political issues. He is an NRI and a citizen of Singapore.

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 and relationships. Despite poor critical response, it was greeted with popularity, and brought Bhagat a large following. It was adapted into a play by the theatre group "Madras Players". This book was adapted into a movie, called 3 Idiots, though Chetan Bhagat has stated that he was not involved in the scriptwriting in any way. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, and starring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, and Boman Irani in pivotal roles, it was released on December 25, 2009.

2. One Night @ the Call Center, was released in India in October 2005 also to popular appeal. This book was 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 did not succeed commercially.

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 anticipated book.

As a columnist

Bhagat has an op-ed column in Dainik Bhaskar, a large Hindi newspaper and another at The Hindustan Times, an English daily. 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."

Some of his columns have been discussed in the Indian Parliament. His articles are written in simple English to achieve mass appeal. He also visits Educational Institutions in India to give motivational talks. His speech 'Spark' in Pune attained widespread fame and was published in many newspapers

Awards

· Society Young Achiever's award in 2004.

· Publisher’s recognition award in 2005.

Bibliography

· Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT (2004)

· One Night @ the Call Center (2005)

· The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008)

· 2 States - The Story Of My Marriage (2009)

Chetanblocks controversy

On 7th Dec 2009, Chetan Bhagat clashed with his followers on Twitter ,following an argument over one of his tweets lamenting piracy of his books. He threatened to block them, and then did so. There were all types of reactions on Twitter to this, from support to indignation to amusement. "#chetanblocks", became a trending topic for hours on twitter. Later he tweeted the reasons why he blocked some tweeters, and a while later, deleted some of the tweets justifying his actions.

3 Idiots Controversy

His book Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT was adapted into a film 3 Idiots. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani. Upon its release the film got excellent reviews and has performed well at the box office.

December 31, 2009 Chetan Bhagat made an entry on his blog titled A book, a film and the truth[20] in which he claimed that he was not shown the final script of the movie and was led to believe that the film was only ‘2%-5% inspired by the book’.He also claimed that he was not given the due credit as promised. For the full article please read http://www.chetanbhagat.com/blog/general/a-book-a-film-and-the-truth

A few people responded to Chetan's statements. According to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), during a press conference with reporters producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra "clarified that in the agreement between the producer and Bhagat, it was clearly mentioned that the author’s name would be put in the closing credits." IANS also reported that Chopra "lost his cool" and "asked a reporter to shut up after being questioned whether his hit 3 Idiots was lifted from author Chetan Bhagat’s book Five Point Someone." Chopra later apologized, stating: "I really think I’m silly. I was provoked, but I shouldn’t have done this. I saw myself on TV and saw how I was shouting ‘shut up, shut up’ like an animal. I told myself — ‘what nonsensical behaviour’."Aamir Khan also responded to these claims.Rajkumar Hirani stated that "We have officially bought the rights for the film. We drew a contract with him and it clearly mentions about the position of his credit. With open eyes he had seen the contract, consulted his lawyer and signed the agreement [...] In the contract, we have said that the title would be given in the rolling credits. We haven't changed the font size. We haven't increased the speed of the title. It's exactly there where it was agreed to be." Legal documents concerning the relationship between Bhagat and the filmmakers have been added to the Vinod Chopra Productions website as well. However, an overwhelming number of youngsters, especially those who have read Chetan Bhagat's books, seem to be in favor of the author. They claim that though the script may be a little different from the original story as in any adaptation, the story credit appearing in the beginning of the movie should have included the author Chetan Bhagat as well.

In a recent interview Chetan Bhagat said, “I absolutely have nothing against ‘3 Idiots’ team. I have got some issue over their mistake but I have no personal issues with them, related to their personality or their way those people are. So I kindly apologize to their families if this all caused any suffering to them.” He added that, “I really want to thank all of my fans, who remain there with me, but I really do not want my fans to become against anyone of them, mainly Aamir.”