Shobha De
De at an event in 2015
De at an event in 2015
BornShobha Rajadhyaksha
(1948-01-07) 7 January 1948
Satara District, Province of Bombay, Dominion of India
(present-day Maharashtra, India)
Occupation
  • Author
  • columnist
  • novelist
SpouseDilip De
Children4

Shobha De (née Rajadhyaksha, formerly Kilachand; born 7 January 1948) is an Indian novelist and columnist. She is best known for her depiction of socialites and sex in her works of fiction,[1] for which she has been referred to as the "Jackie Collins of India."[2][3]

Early life and education

Shobhaa De was born on 7 January 1948[4] in Mumbai into a Marathi Brahmin family.[5] Her father was a district court judge, and her mother was a home-maker.[1] The youngest of four siblings, she has two sisters and a brother.[2]

Shobha grew up in Mumbai, where she attended Queen Mary School. She graduated from Saint Xavier's College.[6]

Career

At age 17, she began her career as a model,[1] which lasted for five years.[7] At age 20, she began her career as a journalist, writing "agony aunt" advice columns and features for society magazines.[2] She founded the magazine Stardust at age 23, which included Bollywood interviews, gossip, and photographs.[1][4]

In the 1980s, she contributed to the Sunday magazine section of The Times of India. She has since been a regular columnist for several newspapers.[4] She has also written several popular soaps on television.

Ankita Shukla wrote for The Times of India, in 2016, that "unignorable has been Shobhaa De's unabashed description of the womenfolk in her novels. De's women range from traditional, subjugated and marginalized to the extremely modern and liberated women. De's novels take a leaf the urban life and represent realistically an intimate side of urban woman's life, also revealing her plight in the present day society."[8] In 1992, Mark Fineman of the Los Angeles Times described her as "India's hottest-selling English-language novelist," and how her second novel, Starry Nights (1991), had "a drawing of a nude woman on the front cover," and according to De, "they said it was the first time they’d broken through the ‘F’ barrier, the first time they’d run the F-word without asterisks."[2] Urmee Khan writes for The Guardian in 2007, "Her books are steeped in a lifetime's observation of Bollywood," and "They describe a side of the country that western audiences rarely encounter, her central themes being power, greed, lust and sex."[1]

In 2010, De and Penguin Books created the publishing imprint Shobhaa De Books.[9]

De has also participated in several literary festivals, including the Bangalore Literature Festival,[7] having been part of it since its first edition.[10]

Personal life

Shobha has married twice and has often said that she is the mother of six children, which includes two stepchildren.[2]

Directly after graduation, Shobha married Sudhir Vrajlal Kilachand, of the Kilachand Marwadi business family. They quickly became the parents of two children, a son, Aditya Kilachand, and a daughter, Avantika.[2] The marriage ended in divorce.

Shobha is a well known columnist and opinion shaper. She is known to speak her mind and provides her take on current affairs with her unique style.

Shobha then married Dilip De, a businessman in the shipping industry, and a Bengali.[2] This was Dilip's second marriage also, and he has two children by his previous marriage. Shobha and Dilip De became the parents of a further two daughters, Arundhati and Anandita.[2][11][12]

Books

  • Srilaaji – Diary of a Marwari Matriarch, Simon & Schuster (2020)[13][14]
  • Lockdown Laisons (2020)[14][15]
  • Small Betrayals − Hay House India, New Delhi, 2014[14]
  • Seventy And to Hell with It (2017)[16]
  • Shobhaa: Never a Dull De − Hay House India, New Delhi, 2013
  • Shethji −2012[3]
  • Shobhaa at Sixty −Hay House India, New Delhi, 2010
  • Sandhya's secret −2009
  • Superstar India – From Incredible to Unstoppable
  • Strange Obsession
  • Snapshots
  • Spouse: The truth about marriage (2005)[17]
  • Speedpost – Penguin, New Delhi. 1999.[17]
  • Surviving Men – Penguin, New Delhi, 1998[17]
  • Selective Memory – Penguin, New Delhi. 1998.[4]
  • Second Thoughts – Penguin, New Delhi. 1996.
  • Small betrayals – UBS Publishers' Distributors, 1995
  • Shooting from the hip – UBS, Delhi, 1994.
  • Sultry Days – Penguin, New Delhi. 1994.
  • Sisters – Penguin, New Delhi. 1992.
  • Starry Nights – 1989, India, Penguin, New Delhi ISBN 0-14-012267-2, Pub date ? ? 1989, paperback
  • Socialite Evenings – 1989, India, Penguin, New Delhi ISBN 0-14-012267-2, Pub date ? ?

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Khan, Urmee (4 May 2007). "Hooray for Bollywood". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fineman, Mark (1 April 1992). "'The Jackie Collins of India'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  3. 1 2 Betigeri, Aarti (18 February 2013). "Meet India's Jackie Collins, Shobhaa De". ABC Australia. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Dasgupta, Shougat (10 January 2018). "That Shobhaa De show: Godmother of Indian chatterati embraces her 70s with new book". India Today. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  5. ↑ Nandgaonkar, Satish; Rashid, Omar (14 April 2015). "My DNA is 100% Maharashtrian, says Shobhaa De". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  6. ↑ Sen, Debarati S. (12 October 2015). "My days in Xavier's were the defining years for me: Shobhaa De | Mumbai News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  7. 1 2 Sarmmah, Surupasree (30 October 2018). "Editing script of my life was important: Shobhaa De". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  8. ↑ Shukla, Ankita (21 December 2016). "Depiction of women in literature through ages". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  9. ↑ "Shobhaa De, Penguin script new chapter". The Times of India. TNN. 9 April 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  10. ↑ "Soak in the cultural extravaganza that's the Bangalore Lit Fest". 27 September 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  11. ↑ Bobb, Dilip (28 February 2005). "Shobhaa De's 'Spouse' takes a hard look at Indian marriages". India Today. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  12. ↑ Daniel, Vaihayasi P (16 February 2005). "'Marriage is becoming like the dinosaur'". www.rediff.com. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  13. ↑ Salim, Lubna (25 October 2020). "The tales of two women". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  14. 1 2 3 Kumar, Surya Praphulla (31 July 2020). "Shobhaa De on her latest book, Lockdown Liasons". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  15. ↑ Ghoshal, Somak (15 June 2020). "Sex, lies and job loss: Shobhaa De on her weekly lockdown stories". Mint. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  16. ↑ Khandelwal, Tara (9 November 2017). "70 And To Hell With It, Says Shobhaa De". SheThePeople.TV. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  17. 1 2 3 Bobb, Dilip (28 February 2005). "Shobhaa De's 'Spouse' takes a hard look at Indian marriages". India Today. Retrieved 22 June 2021. UPDATED: March 22, 2012
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