Vikas Swarup (; Urdu: ???? ?????) 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.
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.
He is currently, since August 2009, posted in Japan as India's Consul-General to Osaka-Kobe. His previous postings include stints in Ankara, Washington DC, Addis Ababa, London and Pretoria.
His debut novel, Q & 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 43 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. 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 Return of the King won 11 in 2004." 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 more than twenty five languages. The US edition was published 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. In 2009 he participated in the 33rd Cairo International Festival as a jury member for the International Competition for Feature Digital Films.
He has written for TIME, The Guardian, The Telegraph (UK), Outlook magazine (India) and Liberation (France).
On September 21, 2010 the University of South Africa (UNISA), the largest university in South Africa and one of the largest distance education institutions in the world, conferred the degree of Doctor of Literature & Philosophy (honoris causa) on Swarup at a graduation ceremony in Pretoria.
