Amit Shankar (born 15 November 1973) is an advertising professional-turned-author. Currently based out of Gurgaon, Shankar has written five fiction titles, and authored and edited two international poetry collections. His short stories have been adapted into films, plays and skits.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] His titles have represented contemporary Indian fiction at Frankfurt Book Fair and the Beijing Book Fair.[8]
Shankar was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He completed his schooling from St. Joseph's College, Allahabad and then moved to Delhi for further studies. He holds a post-graduate degree in Commerce from University of Delhi.[9]
Shankar began his advertising career by joining McCann Erickson. He has worked at companies like Publicis Groupe, Wunderman, Solutions [10] and Dentsu. His clientele included: Nestle, GM, Microsoft, Cisco, WHO, Pedigree and USAID.
Shankar has also worked at the Canadian company Nortel Networks. After which he joined Sparrow , an animation agency, as the CEO of the company.
He quit his job to focus full-time on his writing career because he was missing lessons and morals in contemporary writing.[11][12]
His first fiction title Flight of the Hilsa (2010) explores the meaning of happiness through the character of Avantika Sengupta, a young Bengali painter.[1][5][11] The novel garnered critical acclaim and has represented the contemporary Indian fiction at the Frankfurt and Beijing Book Fair in 2014.[5][1][11]
His second fiction title, Chapter 11 (2011), is a commentary on the urban conflict and suggests answers to day-to-day complex issues.[4][5] Love is Vodka – A Shot Ain’t Enough (2012), Shankar’s third book, explores the confusion around the word love.[5]
Café Latte (2014), a collection of 18 short stories, was registered in the Limca Book of Records for being the first book launched with a film on one of the stories.[13][14]
The book surveys various hues of death.[2][5][15]
Never Alone, Always Lonely is an international poetry coffee table book where fifty of his poems have been interpreted by 12 artists, both from India and abroad.[5]
[16] His latest offering, Uberlegen [17] is his first thriller. It traces a secret WW2 genetic formula that has gone missing.[18]
Shankar is the founder of The Great Indian Literary Festival[19] [20] It focuses on bringing Indian literature in regional languages to the fore.[21][22] Its Season1 and 2 were held in Udaipur in 2017 and 2018.[5][23][24][25]
He believes that Hindi has to play a crucial role in unifying the nation and therefore it has to be promoted both in terms of content and reach.[26]
During its Season 4, writers, poets and artists from Romania, Hungary, Ukraine and Switzerland also joined.[27][28]
He is also the founder of House of Lions, a brand and communication consultancy with offices in India and France.[29][30][31]
As a guest speaker and visiting faculty he visits corporate, design and management institutes.[32][33]