Diksha Basu is an American writer and actress. She is the author of the novel ''The Windfall'' which is under adaptation for a television series by

Shonali Bose Shonali Bose (born 3 June 1965) is an Indian film director, writer and film producer. Having made her feature film debut in 2005, she has since won such accolades as a National Film Award, a Bridgestone Narrative Award, and a Sundance Mahindr ...

Biography

Diksha Basu was born in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, to the sociologist Alaka Malwade Basu and economist

Kaushik Basu Kaushik Basu (born 9 January 1952) is an Indian economist who was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016 and Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India from 2009 to 2012. He is the C. Marks Professor of International Studie ...

, who later became the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India and then the

Chief Economist Chief economist is a single-position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of respons ...

at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. She grew up in Delhi during the 1990s till the age of 10. When she was a teenager, she moved to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

with her family. Basu states that after moving to

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

, she would keep visiting Delhi every 4 to 6 months. She eventually graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in economics, and in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

as part of a double major. In 2008, she moved to

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

to pursue a career in acting, and lived in the city for four years. She featured in the comedy series ''

Mumbai Calling ''Mumbai Calling'' is a British-Indian comedy series, starring Sanjeev Bhaskar, set in the fictional Teknobable call centre in Mumbai. The series was shot on location in India. The pilot first aired on ITV on 30 May 2007. The first series aire ...

'' (2007) and in the drama film '' A Decent Arrangement'' (2011). She began writing while in Mumbai, and her debut novel ''Opening Night'' was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

and launched in 2012 by

Chetan Bhagat Chetan Prakash Bhagat (born April 22, 1974) is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, and YouTuber. He was included in ''Time (magazine), Time magazine’s'' list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2010. Several of his nove ...

. The novel depicted the struggles of an American-born actor who moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in acting. It was described as a deeply personalised non autobiographical work of literary fiction. Basu joined the

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York (state), New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, ...

to attain a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

, from where she graduated in 2014. She also featured in the memory film ''A Million Rivers'' (2017). In the meantime, she married the music producer

Mikey McCleary Michael McCleary is a New Zealand songwriter, composer, performer, producer and director based in Mumbai, India since 2007. He has worked on a large number of advertisements such as for brands such as Levi's, Coca-Cola, Vodafone and films such ...

and gave birth to her daughter in 2017. Her second novel ''The Windfall'' was also published and launched in the same year, it was a humorous fiction marketed as a debut novel and depicted the life of a middle class Indian man who had suddenly encountered wealth. It received positive critical acclaim and was signed in for a deal to be adapted into a television series. According to ''ELLE'' magazine, it broke stereotypes of exoticism surrounding India while according to ''The Wire'', it was a "shrewd and unstintingly funny story about the neuroses of New Delhi's 1%". ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' gave it a mixed review objecting at its lack of nuance and inaccuracies in social and cultural depictions. In 2020, she published her third novel, ''Destination Wedding.''

Books

* ''Opening Night'' (2012) * ''The Windfall'' (2017) * ''Destination Wedding'' (2020)

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Basu, Diksha Living people Women writers from Delhi Actresses from Delhi Writers from Ithaca, New York Indian emigrants to the United States American women writers of Indian descent American actresses of Indian descent Cornell University alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni American expatriate actresses in India American film actresses American television actresses Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Hindi television Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American actresses American people of Bengali descent American people of Marathi descent