Anuja Chauhan
Encyclopedia
Anuja Chauhan is an India
n author and advertiser. She worked in the advertising agency, JWT
India, for over 17 years, eventually becoming vice president and executive creative director, before resigning in 2010 to pursue a full-time literary career. Over the years she worked with brands like Pepsi
, Kurkure, Mountain Dew
and Nokia
, creating Pepsi's "Nothing official about it" campaign and advertising slogans like Pepsi's "Yeh Dil Maange More" and "Oye Bubbly". As a writer, she is best known for her bestselling, contemporary rom-com novels, The Zoya Factor
(2008) and Battle For Bittora (October 2010). Both books are romances, the first set in the glamorous, high pressure world of Indian cricket, and the second in the heat and dust of a Lok Sabha
(lower house of Parliament) election.
, Chauhan spent most of her childhood in various cantonment
towns in North India
, as her father served in the Indian Army
. He took premature retirement at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, migrating to Australia
thereafter. She was the youngest of four sisters.
She did her schooling at the Army Public School
, New Delhi, Sophia Girls Convent, Meerut Cantonment and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road
, New Delhi. She has a Bachelors degree in economics from Miranda House
, Delhi University, and a post graduate diploma in mass communication from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
.
in 1993 and in the next seventeen years was responsible for many memorable catchphrases, primarily for Pepsi Cola, India, such as "Yeh Dil Maange More!", "Mera Number kab Aayega","Nothing official about it" and " Oye Bubbly", etc. Other popular catchphrases she worked on include Darr ke Aage jeet Hai for Mountain Dew
, Tedha Hai par mera Hai for Kurkure, "Be a Little Dillogical", for Lays Chips and KitKat Break Banta hai for Nestle Kitkat. By 2003 and at age 33, she had already become one of the youngest vice presidents in JWT, and was known for her penchant for "simple solution to a complex advertising problem", with clutter-breaking ideas. She features regularly in The Economic Times
supplement Brand Equity’s list of the ten hottest creative directors in India, and was ranked 26th in the 'creativerankings 2010', a list of the hleading executive creative directors in Asia-Pac.
In August 2010, she resigned from her post of vice-president and executive creative director at JWT, Delhi, where she had worked for 17 years, to pursue a career in writing. However, she still remains active as an advertising consultant and is the only Indian to feature on the prestigious One Show Jury for the year 2011. (The One Show awards, organized by the One Club, New York, are the most coveted advertising awards in the world.)
brand for 13 years, closely associated with cricket advertising, led to cricket becoming the setting of her novel about a girl Zoya Singh Solanki, a client service representative with an advertising agency, who becomes a lucky mascot of the Indian cricket team. At the time of its release, The Zoya Factor
ran the danger of being dismissed as ‘Mills and Boon-ish’ but most reviewers were quick to praise the depth of the author’s characters, her wicked descriptions and the authenticity of her Hinglish
laced dialogue.
She has been hailed as the best chick lit
writer in India, but in a recent interview with CNBC-18 said that she has issues with the chick lit tag and with tags generally. The Zoya Factor
has won Cosmopolitan Magazine, India’s Fun Fearless Female award for literature (2008) and the India Today
Woman award for Woman as Storyteller (2009). It was longlisted for the India Plaza Golden Quill (2009). The novel has also been optioned for a film by Shah Rukh Khans Red Chillies Entertainment
production company. The option is for three years.
Her much anticipated book, Battle For Bittora, about a 25-year old Jinni living in Mumbai and working for an animation studio and what happens when she comes back to her hometown, Bittora, at the call of her grandmother, was released in 2010 by actor Saif Ali Khan
in Delhi in October 2010, to unanimous critical approval from India Today
, Outlook
, The Week
and Tehelka
magazines.
Tehelka called it a "worthy successor to The Zoya Factor." According to Ira Pande, in Outlook
magazine, Chauhan 'manages to legitimise a new vocabulary emerging from the violent collision between Bharat and India that has all the promise of a new lingua franca. In the way that Piyush Pandey
, Prasoon Joshi
and A. R. Rahman
have brought a whiff of newness into lyrics and jingles, this new language may outrage purists but describes perfectly memorable Indian sense-impressions, such as Bhainscafe, the brew that marries instant coffee with nauseatingly rich buffalo milk.' The Hindustan Times is its review commended the book for its treatment, while giving the "biggest vote" to novel's characterization.
The film rights for Battle of Bittora have been purchased by the film production company Saregama for three years for an undisclosed sum.
Chauhan is also writing the screenplay of a commercial feature film - a love story titled Guppie - mein liar nahi shayar hoon by Nikhil Advani
a promiment Bollywood producer/director who directed Kal Ho Na Ho and most recently, Patiala House
, starring Akshay Kumar
.
Neither of her novels have been published outside India.
, who has produced popular reality shows like Indian Idol
for Sony, Perfect Bride for Star Plus and Roadies for MTV. The two met in Delhi in 1989, during the production of a college play. They married in 1994. Chauhan's mother-in-law is Margaret Alva
, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress
, the former General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee
and the present Governor of the mountain state of Uttarakhand
. Chauhan has two daughters, Niharika Margaret and Nayantara Violet, and a son, Daivik John. The couple moved to Gurgaon
, a Delhi-suburb in 2002. Chauhan was featured in Femina magazine's list of the 50 most beautiful women in India in 2011 and in MSN's The Influentials, a list of the top 50 most powerful women in the country.
Chauhan converted to Christianity ten years after her marriage.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n author and advertiser. She worked in the advertising agency, JWT
JWT
JWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
India, for over 17 years, eventually becoming vice president and executive creative director, before resigning in 2010 to pursue a full-time literary career. Over the years she worked with brands like Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
, Kurkure, Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew is a citrus-flavored carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in the 1940s by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman and was first marketed in Marion, VA, Knoxville and Johnson City, Tennessee. A revised formula was...
and Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, creating Pepsi's "Nothing official about it" campaign and advertising slogans like Pepsi's "Yeh Dil Maange More" and "Oye Bubbly". As a writer, she is best known for her bestselling, contemporary rom-com novels, The Zoya Factor
The Zoya Factor
The Zoya Factor is a novel written by Anuja Chauhan, published by HarperCollins India in 2008. It is about a Rajput girl named Zoya Singh Solanki who meets the Indian Cricket Team through her job as an executive in an advertising agency and ends up becoming a lucky charm for the team for the 2010...
(2008) and Battle For Bittora (October 2010). Both books are romances, the first set in the glamorous, high pressure world of Indian cricket, and the second in the heat and dust of a Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
(lower house of Parliament) election.
Early life and education
Born in the small town of Meerut, in the north Indian state of Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, Chauhan spent most of her childhood in various cantonment
Cantonment
A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district, as is the name of the Cantons of Switzerland. In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations...
towns in North India
North India
North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...
, as her father served in the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
. He took premature retirement at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, migrating to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
thereafter. She was the youngest of four sisters.
She did her schooling at the Army Public School
Army Public School
Army Public School is a system of public schools established for imparting education to the children of the Indian armed forces personnel. With 125 schools throughout the country, it is one of the largest chain of schools in India that is controlled by the AWES .The schools are generally managed...
, New Delhi, Sophia Girls Convent, Meerut Cantonment and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road
Delhi Public School, Mathura Road
Delhi Public School, Mathura Road is a private co-educational day and boarding school in New Delhi, India. It is run by the Delhi Public School Society and is a member of the Indian Public School Conference. The school was founded in 1949 and was the first Delhi Public School...
, New Delhi. She has a Bachelors degree in economics from Miranda House
Miranda House
Miranda House , is a highly renowned and distinguished constituent college for women at the University of Delhi in India. It is widely regarded as a Premier Women's Institution of Delhi University offering degrees in the Sciences and Liberal Arts . Miranda House has demonstrated academic...
, Delhi University, and a post graduate diploma in mass communication from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
.
Advertising
Chauhan joined JWTJWT
JWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
in 1993 and in the next seventeen years was responsible for many memorable catchphrases, primarily for Pepsi Cola, India, such as "Yeh Dil Maange More!", "Mera Number kab Aayega","Nothing official about it" and " Oye Bubbly", etc. Other popular catchphrases she worked on include Darr ke Aage jeet Hai for Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew is a citrus-flavored carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in the 1940s by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman and was first marketed in Marion, VA, Knoxville and Johnson City, Tennessee. A revised formula was...
, Tedha Hai par mera Hai for Kurkure, "Be a Little Dillogical", for Lays Chips and KitKat Break Banta hai for Nestle Kitkat. By 2003 and at age 33, she had already become one of the youngest vice presidents in JWT, and was known for her penchant for "simple solution to a complex advertising problem", with clutter-breaking ideas. She features regularly in The Economic Times
The Economic Times
The Economic Times is an English-language Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. The Economic Times was started in 1961. It is the most popular and widely read financial daily in India, read by more than 8 lakh people...
supplement Brand Equity’s list of the ten hottest creative directors in India, and was ranked 26th in the 'creativerankings 2010', a list of the hleading executive creative directors in Asia-Pac.
In August 2010, she resigned from her post of vice-president and executive creative director at JWT, Delhi, where she had worked for 17 years, to pursue a career in writing. However, she still remains active as an advertising consultant and is the only Indian to feature on the prestigious One Show Jury for the year 2011. (The One Show awards, organized by the One Club, New York, are the most coveted advertising awards in the world.)
Author
She started working on her first novel in 2006, writing during her spare time. Having worked on the PepsiPepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
brand for 13 years, closely associated with cricket advertising, led to cricket becoming the setting of her novel about a girl Zoya Singh Solanki, a client service representative with an advertising agency, who becomes a lucky mascot of the Indian cricket team. At the time of its release, The Zoya Factor
The Zoya Factor
The Zoya Factor is a novel written by Anuja Chauhan, published by HarperCollins India in 2008. It is about a Rajput girl named Zoya Singh Solanki who meets the Indian Cricket Team through her job as an executive in an advertising agency and ends up becoming a lucky charm for the team for the 2010...
ran the danger of being dismissed as ‘Mills and Boon-ish’ but most reviewers were quick to praise the depth of the author’s characters, her wicked descriptions and the authenticity of her Hinglish
Hinglish
Hinglish, a blending of the words "Hindi" and "English", means to combine both languages in one sentence. This is more commonly seen in urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of India, but is slowly spreading into rural and remote areas of these states via television, mobile...
laced dialogue.
She has been hailed as the best chick lit
Chick lit
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...
writer in India, but in a recent interview with CNBC-18 said that she has issues with the chick lit tag and with tags generally. The Zoya Factor
The Zoya Factor
The Zoya Factor is a novel written by Anuja Chauhan, published by HarperCollins India in 2008. It is about a Rajput girl named Zoya Singh Solanki who meets the Indian Cricket Team through her job as an executive in an advertising agency and ends up becoming a lucky charm for the team for the 2010...
has won Cosmopolitan Magazine, India’s Fun Fearless Female award for literature (2008) and the India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
Woman award for Woman as Storyteller (2009). It was longlisted for the India Plaza Golden Quill (2009). The novel has also been optioned for a film by Shah Rukh Khans Red Chillies Entertainment
Red Chillies Entertainment
Red Chillies Entertainment is an Indian motion picture production and distribution company, based in Mumbai. The company was founded in 2002 by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan...
production company. The option is for three years.
Her much anticipated book, Battle For Bittora, about a 25-year old Jinni living in Mumbai and working for an animation studio and what happens when she comes back to her hometown, Bittora, at the call of her grandmother, was released in 2010 by actor Saif Ali Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Saif Ali Khan is an Indian actor known for his work in Bollywood films. He is the son of the late former Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and actress Sharmila Tagore. He has two sisters: Saba Ali Khan and actress Soha Ali Khan....
in Delhi in October 2010, to unanimous critical approval from India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
, Outlook
Outlook (magazine)
Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies...
, The Week
The Week
The Week, styled as THE WEEK, is a weekly news magazine.-History:It was founded in the United Kingdom by Jolyon Connell in 1995. In April 2001, the magazine began publishing an American edition; an Australian edition followed in October 2008. Dennis Publishing publishes the U.K. and Australian...
and Tehelka
Tehelka
Tehelka is an Indian weekly political magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal known for its undercover exposé style of journalism. Its cover price is Rs 20 per issue. The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com...
magazines.
Tehelka called it a "worthy successor to The Zoya Factor." According to Ira Pande, in Outlook
Outlook (magazine)
Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies...
magazine, Chauhan 'manages to legitimise a new vocabulary emerging from the violent collision between Bharat and India that has all the promise of a new lingua franca. In the way that Piyush Pandey
Piyush Pandey
Piyush Pandey is the Executive Chairman & National Creative Director Ogilvy & Mather India and the winner of over 600 awards for advertising from all over the world. He is also Vice Chairman of O&M South Asia. Under Pandey, Oglivy & Mather has become the third largest advertising agency in India...
, Prasoon Joshi
Prasoon Joshi
Prasoon Joshi is an Indian lyricist, screenwriter and advertising copywriter. A prolific Writer-Poet whose first book of 3 books "Main aur Woh" was published when he was 17 years of age, an internationally acclaimed Indian advertising professional, Bollywood film songwriter, as well as a...
and A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
have brought a whiff of newness into lyrics and jingles, this new language may outrage purists but describes perfectly memorable Indian sense-impressions, such as Bhainscafe, the brew that marries instant coffee with nauseatingly rich buffalo milk.' The Hindustan Times is its review commended the book for its treatment, while giving the "biggest vote" to novel's characterization.
The film rights for Battle of Bittora have been purchased by the film production company Saregama for three years for an undisclosed sum.
Chauhan is also writing the screenplay of a commercial feature film - a love story titled Guppie - mein liar nahi shayar hoon by Nikhil Advani
Nikhil Advani
-Early life and background:Advani was born in Mumbai. His father has a Pharmaceutical business and his mother is an advertising professional.He studied at Green Lawns High School, Breach Candy, and later did his Masters in chemistry at St...
a promiment Bollywood producer/director who directed Kal Ho Na Ho and most recently, Patiala House
Patiala House
Patiala House is a 2011 Hindi family drama / sports film directed by Nikhil Advani and starring Akshay Kumar and Anushka Sharma. British Asian Actor Armaan Kirmani also makes his debut in this film as Akshay's brother...
, starring Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar is an Indian film actor, producer and martial artist who has appeared in over a hundred Hindi films. When he began his acting career in the 1990s, he primarily starred in action films and was particularly known for his appearances in feature films commonly called the "Khiladi series",...
.
Neither of her novels have been published outside India.
Personal life
Chauhan is married to the noted television presenter and producer, Niret AlvaNiret Alva
Niret Alva is an Indian television producer and anchor. He co-founded Miditech, a Rs 50-crore television software company, along with his brother Nikhil Alva in 1992, which is currently one of Asia's leading independent production companies...
, who has produced popular reality shows like Indian Idol
Indian Idol
Indian Idol is an adaptation of the Pop Idol format. It started airing in India with the first season in 2004-2005 and followed that with second , third and fourth seasons...
for Sony, Perfect Bride for Star Plus and Roadies for MTV. The two met in Delhi in 1989, during the production of a college play. They married in 1994. Chauhan's mother-in-law is Margaret Alva
Margaret Alva
Margaret Alva is the Governor of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Alva became Uttarakhand's first woman governor in July 2009...
, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, the former General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee
All India Congress Committee
The All India Congress Committee is the Presidium or central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress Party. It is composed of members elected from State-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousand members...
and the present Governor of the mountain state of Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
. Chauhan has two daughters, Niharika Margaret and Nayantara Violet, and a son, Daivik John. The couple moved to Gurgaon
Gurgaon
Gurgaon is the second largest city in the Indian state of Haryana. Gurgaon is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. It is located 30 km south of national capital New Delhi, about 10 kilometers from Dwarka Sub City and 268 km south of Chandigarh, the state capital...
, a Delhi-suburb in 2002. Chauhan was featured in Femina magazine's list of the 50 most beautiful women in India in 2011 and in MSN's The Influentials, a list of the top 50 most powerful women in the country.
Chauhan converted to Christianity ten years after her marriage.
External links
- Battle for Bittora, Interview, 2010 at Mint (newspaper)Mint (newspaper)Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner...