Vikas Swarup
Vikas Swarup | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Occupation | Novelist, Civil servant |
| Nationality | India  |
| Genre | Realism |
| Website | |
| http://www.vikasswarup.net/index_files/page0001.htm | |
Vikas Swarup (Template:Lang-hi) is an Indian novelist and diplomat who has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, Great Britain and South Africa, best known for his novels Q & A and Six Suspects.
Early life
Vikas Swarup was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh in a family of lawyers. He did his schooling from Boys' High School & College, Allahabad and pursued further studies at Allahabad University with subjects Psychology, History and Philosophy.
Career
Vikas Swarup joined IFS in 1986.
He is currently, since August 2009, posted in as India's Consul-General to Osaka, Japan.[1]. Since August 2006,[2] he was posted in Pretoria as India's Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa.
His debut novel, Q and A, tells the story of how a penniless waiter in Mumbai becomes the biggest quiz show winner in history. Critically acclaimed in India and abroad, this international bestseller has been translated into 42 different languages. It was shortlisted for the Best First Book by the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and won South Africa’s Exclusive Books Boeke Prize 2006, as well as the Prix Grand Public at the 2007 Paris Book Fair. Most recently, it was voted winner of the Best Travel Read (Fiction) at the Heathrow Travel Product Award 2009.
A BBC radio play based on the book won the Gold Award for Best Drama at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2008 and the IVCA Clarion Award 2008. Harper Collins brought out the audio book, read by Kerry Shale, which won the Audie for best fiction audio book of the year. Film4 of the UK had optioned the movie rights and the movie titled Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle was first released in the US to great critical acclaim. It won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and three awards (Best Film, Best Director and Most Promising Newcomer) at the British Independent Film Awards 2008. The National Board of Review picked Slumdog Millionaire as the best film of 2008. The movie swept five awards out of its six nominations at the Critics' Choice Awards, and all four nominations awarded at the Golden Globe Awards which includes best director, picture, screenplay & score, and seven BAFTA Awards. It received 10 Oscar nominations of which it won 8, including Best Picture and Best Director. From The NY Times' report: "[T]hough it had no actors nominated for prizes, [it also] swept many awards other than those on the top line, including prizes for cinematography, sound mixing, score and film editing. Slumdog’s eight Oscars was the largest total won by a single film since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won 11 in 2004."[3] The film was released in the UK on 9th of January 2009 and in India on 23 January.
Vikas Swarup's second novel Six Suspects, published by Transworld, was released on July 28, 2008 and is being translated into several languages and published in the US by Minotaur Books in 2009. It has been optioned for a film by the BBC and Starfield productions and John Hodge, who wrote the script for films like Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and The Beach, has been commissioned to write the screenplay.
Swarup's short story ‘A Great Event’ has been published in ‘The Children’s Hours: Stories of Childhood’, an anthology of stories about childhood to support Save the Children and raise awareness for its fight to end violence against children.
Vikas Swarup has participated in the Oxford Literary Festival, the Turin International Book Fair, the Auckland Writers’ Conference, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Kitab Festival in New Delhi, the St. Malo International Book & Film Festival in France, the 'Words on Water' Literary Festival at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the Jaipur Literature Festival in India and the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.
He has written for TIME, The Guardian, The Telegraph (UK), Outlook magazine (India) and Liberation (France).
Personal life
Vikas Swarup is married to Aparna and they have two sons, Aditya and Varun. [4]
Bibliography
Short stories
- A Great Event - published in The Children’s Hours: Stories of Childhood
See also
References
- ^ Consulate General of India, Osaka-Kobe
- ^ Daily Dispatch Online, South Africa Retrieved on 23.2.2009
- ^ "A ‘Slumdog’ Kind of Night at the Oscar Ceremony" by Michael Cieply and David Carr, The New York Times, Feb. 23, 2009. Retrieved 2-23-09.
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/16/danny-boyle-india
Interviews and articles
- Vikas Swarup: Mumbai will recover from this, just as it has many times before
- Doubleday • Modern fiction
- The Rediff Interview/Vikas Swarup
- Channel NewsAsia: Author Speak - Vikas Swarup
- Indian Diplomat’s Novel Maiden Musical Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup’s acclaimed first novel, Q And A, is being made into a West End musical.
- How the story of Slumdog Millionaire started.