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%. 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."

In April 2017, a controversy erupted over a decision of Delhi University to include Bhagat's novel 'Five Point Someone' as part of the English Literature syllabus from the academic session that would start in July 2017. But after a lot of heated debate on this issue, the Delhi University decided in September 2017 to put on hold the recommendations of its English Department to include Bhagat's novel in their course and set up a review committee. Five of Chetan Bhagat's novels have been adapted into Bollywood films like 'Hello' in 2008 (One Night @ the Call Center); '3 Idiots' in 2009 (Five Point Someone); 'Kai Po Che' in 2013 (The 3 Mistakes of My Life); '2 States' in 2014 (2 States); and 'Half Girlfriend' in 2017 (Half Girlfriend). Bhagat has also done scriptwriting for Bollywood films like 'Kai Po Che' (2013) (based on his novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life); 'Kick' (2014) and 'Half Girlfriend' (2017) (based on his novel of the same name). Bhagat won the Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay for 'Kai Po Che!' at the 59th Filmfare Awards in January 2014.

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 judgemental, 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."

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 bestsellers 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.

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

Bhagat then quit Goldman Sachs and joined Deutsche Bank. By 2006, he was vice-president, Strategic Investment Group, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong and two of his novels had been published and become bestsellers — 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 bestseller and Bhagat became "the biggest-selling English-language novelist ever in India" by 2008.

Bhagat holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and MBA from prestigious Indian institutions like IIT & IIM respectively. He started his career as an investment banker, but left it after a few years to pursue his passion in writing. He has written eight novels and three non-fiction books. Right from the time his first bestselling novel Five Point Someone was published in 2004, his subsequent novels have found a place on bestseller lists. His novels will not be there on lists like 'Top 10 bestselling Indian novels of all time' or '12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read', but one of his novels 'Five Point Someone' does find a place in a list like '20 best selling novels you must read'. Bhagat has been described as "the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history". However, Bhagat has also been criticised for his writing skills as not being literary, but "formulaic and targeting a specific audience" and that he is "literally, the Maharaja Mac of literature", as his books are like "processed material that people consume in a hurry." Bhagat has even been accused of plagiarism for his novel 'One Indian Girl', a charge he has denied and rubbished the allegations as unfounded and "deeply unfortunate".

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. 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!"

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. 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 bestseller.

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. He was also the editor of the hostel magazine at IIT Delhi.

Chetan Prakash Bhagat (born April 22, 1974) is a well known Indian author, columnist, Bollywood screenwriter, social media influencer and motivational speaker. He was included in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010.