Anita Pratap | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1958-12-23)23 December 1958 (age 66) Kottayam, Kerala, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, writer |
| Spouse(s) | Pratap Chandran (divorced) Arne Roy Walther (1999–present) |
| Children | Zubin (son) |
| Website | www |
Anita Pratap is anexpatriate Indian writer and journalist.[1][2][3] In 1983, she was the first journalist who interviewedLTTE chiefV. Prabhakaran. She won theGeorge Polk award for TV reporting for her television journalism related to the takeover ofKabul by theTaliban.[1] She was India bureau chief forCNN.[4][5] She has written the bookIsland of Blood based onSri Lanka.[1] In 2013 she was presented with the Shriratna award by the Kerala Kala Kendram an organisation associated to theKerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi.[6] She was nominated as theAam Aadmi Party candidate from Ernakulam, Kerala, for the2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Anita was born inKottayam, Kerala, in a syro Malabar catholic family. Her father was employed with aTata Group enterprise, he was posted at different locations in India taking his family with him. As a child Anita changed seven schools in eleven years. She passedSenior Cambridge from aLoreto School Kolkata and did her BA – English fromMiranda House, New Delhi, in 1978[7] and diploma in journalism fromBangalore University.
After completing her diploma in journalism, Anita was recruited byArun Shourie, the then editor ofThe Indian Express in Delhi. She then transferred to Bangalore to live with her parents. Shortly after, she joinedSunday Magazine. Her interest in journalism was in international politics and that led her to the ethnic conflicts inSri Lanka. She visited many sites to gather first-hand information. In 1983, she interviewedLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) chiefVelupillai Prabhakaran.[1] This became the first ever interview Prabhakaran gave to the world in which he talked about his philosophies of establishing LTTE, of taking matters in his own hands rather than relying on government and of his plans ahead. Anita was immediately recognised on an international level. She continued her work in Sri Lanka and later in 2003 published her first bookIsland of Blood about her experiences of living in a terror-stricken areas.[1]
Anita also worked forIndia Today and then was a correspondent forTime magazine for eight years.[8] Post1993-bombings in Bombay (nowMumbai), she also interviewedBal Thackeray forTime; he was the then the chief ofShiv Sena which was the leading opposition party inMaharashtra. In 1996, she joinedCNN, her first experience as a television journalist. She worked from the Atlanta and the Bangkok bureaus for a short while to get experience. She then covered news on the Taliban's takeover of Kabul for which she was presented with theGeorge Polk Award.[9]
Switching to television from print media, Anita also made various documentaries on social issues and arts. InLight Up the Sky, she showcases the transformation ofinsurgent Mizoram into a democratic state. Her documentary,Orphans of an Ancient Civilization, notes the plights of craftsmen andWhen The Soul Glows documents folk dance traditions. TheShabash Hallelujah was a documentary on theNaga Regiment.[10] Co-authoring with a Bangalore-based photographer Mahesh Bhatt, she published her second bookUnsung in 2007 which told stories of nine ordinary Indian people who served society.[11]
Her first marriage was to Pratap Chandran, and she has a son Zubin from that relationship, born when she was 22 years old.[15] Pratap Chandran was a senior reporter atThe Indian Express where the two met. She subsequently divorced Chandran and took custody of her son.[16] In 1999, she marriedArne Roy Walther, a Norwegian diplomat. This is also Walther's second marriage.[4]
The character of Jaya, played byNargis Fakhri in the 2013 Bollywood thriller,Madras Cafe is modelled on Anita Pratap.[17] In the film, Jaya interviews LTF leader Anna Bhaskaran, who is in turn, modelled onVelupillai Prabhakaran.[citation needed]
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