Richest writers in India – Fame, books, Wealth

Introduction

These Indian writers have landed as a perfect epitome for rising through the stars and inspiring millions of people in the country. They portray the fact that anybody with skills should fringe themselves and follow their passion to the core. They have proved to be mercurial and helped change the effective opinions of the people and changed the way people used to think. In this article, we look at the fame and fortune of some of the richest Indian writers and their lifestyle.

These are the top 10 Indian born authors who proved their mettle with the best of stories and opinionated work.

Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is a well known author, columnist, Bollywood screenwriter, social media influencer. He was included in Time’s magazine list of World’s 100 most influential people in 2010.

He describes his writing career as philosophical and appreciates the flexibility of it. He had accomplished to enter Bollywood with his captivating and effervescent stories. After selling 4 best selling novels, he decided to write dialogues and screenplays for Bollywood films based on his novels.

Five of his novels have been adapted into movies including:

• Hello
• 3 Idiots
• Kai Po Che
• 2 States
• Half Girlfriend

Rabindranath Tagore

 

Rabindranath Tagore, also known as Bhanu Singha Thakur was a Bengali poet, writer, music composer, and painter. He was the first Non-European to have won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

In the late 1870’s he came back to  India and published several books of poetry in the 1880s and completed several other books that got published and gained huge appreciation.

Mostly known for his poetry, Tagore wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues, dramas, and thousands of songs. His short stories are mostly regarded. They are mostly borrowed from the lives of common people.

His several works that got published during his writing career include:

Drama

• Valmiki Pratibha
• Kal Mrigya
• Mayar Khela
• Visarjan
• Chitrangada
• Raja
• Dak Ghar
• Achalayatan
• Muktadhara
• Raktakarabi
• Chandalika

Short Stories

• Bhikarini
• Galpaguchchha
• Kshudita Pashan
• Atithi

Novels

• The Cabulliwalah
• The Kingdom of Card
• Gora

Poetry

• Songs of Bhanushima Thakur
• Manasi
• Sonar Teri
• Gitanjali
• Gitimalya
• Balaka

Shashi Tharoor

 

Dr Shashi Tharoor is the bestselling author of fifteen books, both fiction and non-fiction. He is a noted critic and columnist, a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India.

He was the youngest PhD achiever at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He is a recognised authority on India, especially regarding its recent economic transformations and future prospects, globalisation, freedom of the press, human rights, literacy, etc.

He is the author of hundreds of articles, op-eds, and book reviews in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, The Times of India, Newsweek, etc.

• The Great Indian Novel
• The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories
• Show Business
• Riot
• Reasons of State
• India: From Midnight to the Millenium
• Nehru: The Invention of India
• Bookless in Baghdad
• The Elephant, The Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections of India- The Emerging 21st Century Power
• Shadows Across the Playing Field: Sixty Years of India-Pakistan Cricket
• Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st century
• India: The Future is Now
• India Shashtra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time
• An Era of Darkness
• Why Am I a Hindu
• The Paradoxical Prime Minister
• The Hindu Way
• The New World Disorder and The Indian Imperative

Khushwant Singh

 

Khushwant Singh, one of the best-known writers of all times was born in 1915 in Hadali, now in Pakistan. He practised law at the Lahore High Court for several years and later joined the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in 1947.

As a writer, he was best known for his trenchant secularism, humour, sarcasm, and his love for poetry. From 1980 to 1986, Singh was a member of Rajya Sabha and was awarded the Padma Bhushan Award in 1974. Singh initially was a strong supporter of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

His bestsellers throughout his writing career include:

• The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous
• The Portrait of A Lady: Collected Stories
• Death at My Doorstep
• Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography
• Women and Men in My Life
• Delhi: A Novel
• The History of the Sikhs
• I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale
• Train to Pakistan

R.K Narayan

 

R.K Narayan originally known as Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami was an Indian writer known for his fictional set based on a town in South India called Malgudi. He was a leading author of early generation Indian literature in English.

Narayan completed his education in 1930 and worked as a teacher, later after recognizing his passion for writing he devoted himself to it. His first published work was a book review of Development of Maritime Laws of 17th century England.

His first novel was Swami and Friends is a narrative involving the nurturing and nuances of young schoolboys. In 1953, his works were published in the United States for the first time by Michigan State University Press, who later relinquished the rights to Viking Press. He had several bestsellers including the one that still hasn’t lost his essence is Malgudi.

These are best-sellers novels that he wrote and the best ones include:

• The English Teacher
• Waitin for the Mahatma
• The Guide
• The Man-Eater of Malgudi
• The Vendor of Sweets
• A Tiger for Malgudi
• Lawley Road
• A Horse and Two Goats and Other Stories
• Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories
• The Grandmother’s Tale
• The Ramayana
• The Mahabharata

Arundhati Roy

 

Arundhati Roy originally called as Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian author, actress, and a political activist who is best known for the award-winning novel The God of Small Things and for her human rights activism. She is a renowned peace activist and has written a television serial called “The Banyan Tree” and the documentary DAMAGE: A film in 2002.

Her works have left a great impact on the readers of India. She started by writing screenplays for several shows and even appeared in a few.

She attracted attention in 1994 when she criticized the movie ‘Bandit’s Queen’ by Shekhar Kapur’s that was based on the life of Phoolan Devi.

Roy began writing her first novel The God of Small Things in 1996. The book catapulted Roy to international fame. The book received 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction and was listed as one of The New York Times Notable Books of the year.

Her recognized publications include:

• The God of Small Things
• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
• The End of Imagination
• The Cost of Living
• The Greater Common Good
• The Algebra of Infinite Justice
• Power Politics
• War Talk
• An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire
• Public Power in the Age of Empire
• The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy
• The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy
• Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy
• Broken Republic: Three Essays
• Walking with the Comrades
• Kashmir: The Case for Freedom
• The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament
• Capitalism: A Ghost Story
• Things that Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations
• The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste, the Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi
• My Seditious Heart: Collected Non-Fiction

Ruskin Bond

 

Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He is widely recognised among Indian authors and a top novelist.

He has been writing and has over 120 titles in print -novels, collection of stories, poetry, essays, anthologies, and books for children. In a writing career spanning over six decades, he has written over 500 short stories and novels.

Being a writer for 50 years, Bond wrote different kinds of genres including fiction and non-fiction, short stories and autobiographical.

• With Love from the Hills
• Once Upon a Monsoon Time
• Tales of Fosterganj
• The Room on the Roof
• The Indian I Love
• Maharani
• Vagrants in the Valley
• The Kashmiri Storyteller
• Secrets
• Scenes from a Writer’s Life
• Delhi is not Far
• Leopard on the Mountain
• Rusty Runs Away
• Grandfather’s Private Zoo
• A Flight of Pigeons
• Funny Side Up
• The Blue Umbrella
• Angry River
• Too Much Trouble
• The Sensualist
• Roads to Mussorie
• All Roads Lead to Ganga
• The Cherry Tree
• Ranji’s Wonderful Bat
• Bond, Ruskin
• A Golf Story: Celebrating 125 years of the Bangalore Golf Club

Salman Rushdie

 

Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist and essayist who focusses on Eastern and Western civilisations in his writing. His treatment of sensitive religious and political subjects made him a controversial figure.

He published his first book in 1975 called ‘Grimus’ that received tepid reviews. His second novel that got published in ‘Midnight’s Children’ for which he received the Booker Prize. After Midnight Children, he wrote Shame where he depicts potential turmoil in Pakistan.

His several publications include:

• Grimus
• Midnight Children
• Shame
• The Satanic Verses
• The Moor’s Last Sigh
• The Ground Beneath Her Feet
• Fury
• Shalimar the Crown
• The Enchantress of Florence
• Two Years Eight Months and the Twenty- Eight Nights
• The Golden House
• Quichotte
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories
• Luka and the Fire of Life
• The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
• “In Good Faith”, Granta
• Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism
• The Wizard of Oz
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Imagine There Is No Heaven
• Step Across This Line: Collected Non-Fiction
• The East is Blue
• A Fine Pickle: The Guardian
• In the South
• Joseph Anton: A Memoir

Aravind Adiga

 

Aravind Adiga is an Indo-Australian writer and journalist. He commenced his writing journey as a financial journalist interning with Financial Times. His review of the previous booker prize winner Peter Cary’s book appeared in The Second Circle, an online literary review.

He was subsequently hired by the TIME where he served as South Asia correspondent for three years before going freelance. During his freelance period, he debuted with his writing career with his first novel The White Tiger. He is the fourth Indian-born author to win the Booker Prize after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, and Kiran Desai.

His successful publications include:

• The White Tiger: A Novel
• Between the Assassinations
• Last Man in Tower
• Selection Day
• Amnesty
• The Sultan’s Battery
• Smack
• Last Christmas in Bandra
• The Elephant

 Preeti Shenoy

 

Preeti Shenoy is one of India’s bestselling Indian author widely known for her novel Life Is What You Make.

India Today calls her “the only woman in the highest-selling league” implying at the popularity of her books. Daily News And Analysis described her as a “keenly observant mind” and The Times of India describes her as “Excellent Storytelling Skills”. Cosmopolitan has described her as “One of India most popular authors.

Her publications include:

• 34 Bubblegums and Candies
• Life is What You Make
• Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake
• The Secret Wish List
• The One You Cannot Have
• It Happens for a Reason
• Love, Kisses, and All Things Warm
• Why We Love The Way We Do
• It’s All in the Planet’s
• A Hundred Little Flames
• Love a Little Stronger
• Rule Breakers
• Wake Up, Life is Calling

Conclusion

They helped break the turmoil of the Literature Industry of India and held it to places nobody imagined to reach. They work with another professions and also earned themselves a fortune being a famous writer.