Anuja Chauhan (born 1970) is an Indian author and adwoman. She worked in 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 ad slogans like, Pepsi's Yeh Dil Maange More and Oye Bubbly. As a writer, she is best known of 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.
Early Life and education
Born in the small town of Meerut, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Anuja 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 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.
Career
Advertising
Anuja joined JWT in 1993 and in 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 has 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 VP in JWT team, 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 ten Hottest Creative Directors in India, and was ranked 26th in the 'creativerankings 2010', a list of the hottest Executive Creative Directors in Asia-Pac.
In August 2010, she resigned for 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 debut novel in 2006, writing during her spare time. Having work on Pepsi brand for 13 years, closely associated with cricket advertising, eventually led to cricket became the setting of her novel about a girl Zoya Singh Solanki, a client service rep 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 to CNBC-18 said that she has issues with the chicklit 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 about 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 premier film production house Saregama for three years for an undisclosed sum.
Anuja 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 has directed the superhit Kal Ho Na Ho and most recently, the Akshay Kumar starrer, Patiala House.
Neither of her novels have received an international release yet.
Personal life
She is married to noted television producer Niret Alva, who has produced popular reality shows like Indian Idol For Sony, Perfect Bride for Star Plus and Roadies for MTV. They first met in 1989, during the production of a play in Delhi, they both were involved in, eventually they got married in 1994.[His mother, Margaret Alva, was a well-known Indian politician and is now Governor of the beautiful mountain state of Uttarkhand. Anuja has two daughters, Niharika Margaret, 15, Nayantara Violet, 12, and one son, Daivik John, 9 and the couple moved to Gurgaon, a Delhi-suburb in 2002. She is featured in Femina magazine's list of 50 most beautiful women in India in 2011. And in MSN's The Influenticials, a list of the top 50 power women in the country.
Anuja converted to Christianity ten years after her marriage
Early Life and education
Born in the small town of Meerut, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Anuja 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 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.
Career
Advertising
Anuja joined JWT in 1993 and in 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 has 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 VP in JWT team, 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 ten Hottest Creative Directors in India, and was ranked 26th in the 'creativerankings 2010', a list of the hottest Executive Creative Directors in Asia-Pac.
In August 2010, she resigned for 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 debut novel in 2006, writing during her spare time. Having work on Pepsi brand for 13 years, closely associated with cricket advertising, eventually led to cricket became the setting of her novel about a girl Zoya Singh Solanki, a client service rep 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 to CNBC-18 said that she has issues with the chicklit 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 about 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 premier film production house Saregama for three years for an undisclosed sum.
Anuja 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 has directed the superhit Kal Ho Na Ho and most recently, the Akshay Kumar starrer, Patiala House.
Neither of her novels have received an international release yet.
Personal life
She is married to noted television producer Niret Alva, who has produced popular reality shows like Indian Idol For Sony, Perfect Bride for Star Plus and Roadies for MTV. They first met in 1989, during the production of a play in Delhi, they both were involved in, eventually they got married in 1994.[His mother, Margaret Alva, was a well-known Indian politician and is now Governor of the beautiful mountain state of Uttarkhand. Anuja has two daughters, Niharika Margaret, 15, Nayantara Violet, 12, and one son, Daivik John, 9 and the couple moved to Gurgaon, a Delhi-suburb in 2002. She is featured in Femina magazine's list of 50 most beautiful women in India in 2011. And in MSN's The Influenticials, a list of the top 50 power women in the country.
Anuja converted to Christianity ten years after her marriage
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