Ashwin Sanghi – Keynote Speaker

Ashwin Sanghi is one of India’s five best-selling English fiction authors. His three novels, The Rozabal Line, Chanakya’s Chant, and The Krishna Key, are all based on historical, theological and mythological themes. He is one of India’s most popular conspiracy fiction writers, and is an author of the new era of re-telling Indian history or mythology in a contemporary context.

Forbes India has included Sanghi in their ‘2012 Forbes India Celebrity 100’. He has also been hailed by critics as the “Indian Dan Brown”. In 2013, Sanghi and James Patterson (who has had 19 consecutive number one bestselling novels), announced they will be co-writing an India-based thriller within Patterson’s “Private” series, to be released in early 2014.

Sanghi is an entrepreneur by profession, but writing historical fiction in the thriller genre is his passion and hobby. When he is not writing bestsellers, he works for his family business, the MK Sanghi Group, which has interests in automobile distribution, real estate development, engineering and industrial gases. Sanghi has an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and joined his family’s business in 1993. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Wales.

Sanghi’s first novel, The Rozabal Line is a theological thriller based upon the theory that Jesus died in Kashmir. It was published by Westland in 2008, and went on to become a national bestseller, remaining on the bestseller lists for several months. His second novel, ‘Chanakya’s Chant’, a political thriller with roots in ancient Mauryan history, shot to the top of almost every bestseller list in India, within a few weeks of its launch. The novel went on to win the ‘Crossword-Vodafone Popular Choice Award 2010’, and film producer UTV acquired the movie rights to the book. The novel continues to dominate the fiction charts. ‘The Krishna Key’, Sanghi’s third novel, is a furiously paced and riveting thriller that explores the ancient secrets of the Vedic age and the Mahabharata. It was released in 2012, and shot to No.1 on the AC Nielsen India Fiction list within the first week.