Gita Mehta

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Gita Mehta (b. 1943) is an Indian writer and was born in Delhi in a family of freedom fighters. She is the daughter of Biju Patnaik, the most prominent political leader of Orissa and her younger brother Naveen Patnaik is presently the Chief Minister of Orissa. She completed her education in India and at the Cambridge University, United Kingdom.

She has produced and / or directed 14 television documentaries for UK, European and U.S. networks. During the years 1970, 1971, she was a television war correspondent for the US television network NBC. Her film compilation of the Bangladesh revolution, Dateline Bangladesh, was shown in cinema theatres both in India and abroad.

Although being the wife of Ajai Singh "Sonny" Mehta, head of the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. publishing house, keeps her in the publishing limelight, she has emerged a writer in her own right. Her books have been translated into 21 languages and been on the bestseller lists in Europe, the US and India. The subject of both her fiction and non-fiction is exclusively focused on India, its culture and history, and the Western perception of it. Her works reflect the insight gained through her journalistic and political background.

Gita Mehta divides her time among New York, London and New Delhi.