Shobhaa Dé is one of India’s top best-selling authors and a super achiever. All her 18 books have topped the charts, created records and have been translated into multiple Indian and international languages. In fact, four of her books are course material in the University of London and her work features extensively in Comparative Literature courses at Universities abroad and within India. There are over a hundred dissertations on her work in various libraries worldwide and an academic examination of her books titled, “The Fiction of Shobhaa Dé,” features 40 critical essays by academics – Indian and foreign.
Ms. Dé gave a new definition to the mass-market bestseller with her breakthrough, bold and highly individualistic style that spoke a new language. She is credited with having given birth to “Hinglish” - a heady, irreverent mix of Hindi (India’s national language) and English (also recognized as one of the Indian languages), that spoke to readers in an entirely new way. Ms. Dé, who is the recipient of several awards for her journalistic contributions, writes prolifically for Indian and international publications, is recognized as an important social commentator and something of an authority on popular culture.
Outspoken and forthright, Ms. Dé is on the Readers’ Digest List of “India’s Most Trusted People” , along with Ratan Tata and Dr. Abdul Kalam, on the list of ‘50 Most Powerful Women in India’ published by the DNA Newspaper, on DNA’s ‘The 50 Influential’s’ list and was featured on the list of India’s 100 Most Impactful Indians over the past 15 years, by leading lifestyle magazine ‘Verve’ in the Collector’s edition. Once again in 2013, she was featured as the ‘The 50 Most Powerful People’ in India on VERVE’s list. She was also on the Absolute Power List 2014, featuring just 8 super achievers including Barkha Dutt, Chanda Kochhar, and Kiran Majumdar Shaw. Moreover, she was featured on the list of Google’s 20 Most Searched Indian Women of 2014.
She is on the Advisory Board of important Lit Fests in India and abroad. She features as one of the five ‘Great Indian Writers Who Changed the Meaning of Books’, along with R.K.Narayan, Arundhati Roy and Khushwant Singh, on India Today’s Education site. Shobhaa De was honoured with her own imprint under the Penguin Random House umbrella. It is called SDe Books and has successfully published important titles, such as “The 10 Judgments that Changed India’, by eminent lawyer, Zia Mody and the authorized biography of legal legend Ram Jethmalani, titled ‘The Rebel’ in 2014. In 2017 ‘An Unsuitable Boy’ – Karan Johar’s best-selling autobiography was launched.
She is featured to be 93rd among the 200 world’s most influential/ inspirational authors in a list headed by J.K. Rowling. She has an impressive Twitter following of over two million and a half followers. She was honored by India’s no 1 glamour and lifestyle magazine Hello! with the Timeless Icon Award 2017. She is featured on a list of 53 women writers who are identified as Feminists for Millennials. Socialite Evenings’, her debut novel is listed among the 70 most important books in the 70 Years of India (Hindustan Times ). Moreover, she is featured in the list of 5 Most Famous Indian Women Writers, Eastern Eye, 2018, along with Arundhati Roy and Mahashweta Devi.