About Gautam

Early Life:

Gautam Bhattacharya, one of India’s finest journalists was raised in the early sixties in downtown Chennai. Gautam was born in Kolkata and lived with the family at Motilal Nehru Road, a stone’s throw from Deshapriya Park.

But the family moved out to MGR-Land in the mid-sixties where Gautam effectively spent his childhood. Father, a Senior Accounts Officer with the Central Government, had a transferable job. Service compulsions led him to travel extensively all over India. Yet he took time off to initiate Gautam in the field of games and sports. Those were the days of the great Ramanathan Krishnan. The senior Krishnan after taking India to the Davis Cup Challenge Round in 1966 had assumed an iconic status in the city.

Krishnan had come down to play in the local tennis court opposite where the Bhattacharyas’ lived. Wide-eyed (he still claims he is) and completely starstruck Gautam found in Krishnan his first sporting hero! The virus gripped him so much that the family took no time to discover, irrespective of the academic brightness the little boy had shown sports would be his chosen field of endeavor. The family shifted its base to downtown South Kolkata, following another job transfer. But it only fueled the little boy’s ambition further–of becoming a leading sportsman! The task was cut out clearly – Represent Mohun Bagan in Football or Cricket for India.

Education:

Gautam completed his schooling at one of Kolkata’s heritage schools–Ballygunge Govt High School. For graduation, he chose St Xavier’s, an institution that had always caught his fancy even at the school.

He was to appear for the most important test of his life, The Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management entrance examination in January’83. Seven days before the examination, when the preparation was in full swing, he landed himself an interview with the then Telegraph Editor M J Akbar. What followed was to shape his life forever. As he was asked to join the same day. The IISWBM exam went for a toss. But the decision, as the future indicated, wasn’t such a costly miss!

Family:

Gautam lives at his South Calcutta apartment with his wife Raya, a distinguished elocutionist and daughter Lahoma who happens to be a well-known Actress.

Life Outside Work:

Gautam, even away from the office desk top leads a very hectic social life. He was the President of the Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club for two years and currently the Social Secretary of DKS —a post that he has been holding since the last 10 years. Currently, He is the Vice President of CLT (Children’s Little Theatre). But outside the office what will henceforth take up most of his time will be a post with the Dakshin Kalikata Sansad (DKS). He is going to take over as the Cultural and Social Secretary of the club. And the brief is to enhance the image and profile of this growing Deshapriya Park-based club.

Professional Achievements

Pele, Don Bradman, Harold Larwood, Arthur C Clarke, Nelson Mandela, Diego Maradona, Mohammad Younis, Imran Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Asha Bhosle, Jimmy Connors, Nadia Comaneci, Lata Mangeshkar, M F Hussain, Madhuri Dixit – What do they have in common? Well, they have all been exclusively interviewed at some given point of time in their lives by one Gautam Bhattacharya!

In a 41-year long career Gautam has so often created a stir – produced major exclusive interviews or international scoops that there are simply no parallels in Bengali journalism.

He also had the rare journalistic experience of chasing Princess Diana along with the paparazzi in downtown Lahore. Was threatened by The D gang inside Dawood Ibrahim’s cabin at Sharjah. Was threatened by the bookies in a betting infected Karachi. Is the only Indian journalist who holds the distinction of holding a century partnership with Sunil Gavaskar. His candid face to face with the ex-Bangladesh President Mohammad Ershad at Dhaka and an interview with the author in exile, ever controversial Taslima Nasreen almost brought about a political crisis in Bangladesh. His interview with Imran khan in ‘The Sunday’ magazine created so much stir (as it had criticized the then Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto) that the Pakistan Assembly discussed at length and had decided to ban the magazine in Pakistan.

His super exclusive story of Greg Chappell’s e mail to the Board against Sourav Ganguly was to change the fortunes of Indian Cricket completely. ‘Times of India ‘, supposedly a competitor had termed the story, The mother of all exclusives. He went on to win an All-India Journalists’ award for the same. Gautam, incidentally, is also the only Bengali journalist to have the distinction of his stories getting carried reprinted by the legendary Wisden. Viv Richards possibly gave Gautam the most candid interviews he has ever given. In one of these interviews Viv had taken a dig at Bradman and was so brutally frank that it fetched Gautam the ‘Interview of the year’ award. Previously as back as in 1993 another of his Viv interviews made waves at the international level.

Viv admitted during the course of that sensational one on one that he indeed was the father of Neena Gupta’s child! The conversation duly translated was published in some of the British newspapers. In another instance, in 1990, English tabloids had reproduced Gautam’s intimate conversation with Peter Graf, the father of Steffi Graf. At the same Wimbledon, Gautam managed to get Jimmy Connors’ exclusive one on one. A feat, till date no one has repeated in India.

Now please add up the experience of covering 14 Cricket World Cups. 3 Football World Cups. A staggering number of test series and One-day internationals, All the IPL-s held so far. Cricket tours all over the world. Covered Wimbledon, Australian and the US Open. Has interviewed all the top Bollywood stars. Being Desh’ Patrika’s youngest columnist he used to do a hugely popular weekly column for the magazine that continued for seven years. Currently, he is one of Bengal’s leading Journalists who continues to work in all three formats. Print, Television and Digital.

To him also goes the credit of authoring 42 books, most of which went on to become huge box office hits. Every year, Before the start of the Kolkata Book Fair, thousands eagerly await his new release! He has also been a Cricket Commentator on Star Sports and covered IPL for 3 consecutive years. Isn’t that the journalistic experience of a lifetime!

Sporting Achievements

Journalism was nowhere on Gautam’s radar while he stepped into his teens. Rather he fancied a Bank officer’s job which would allow him to play football for Mohun Bagan or Cricket for India. Please remember the era in which he grew up, a banker’s job was considered ideal for sportspersons. He started off well as a sportsman but ended early with the realization that he was good but not good enough for the State or India!

When he was only seventeen, Gautam was representing Dakshin Kalikata Sansad in the Senior Division Cricket League. He played League Cricket for another four years before giving it up altogether. His cricketing career which began with Ballygunge Govt High School at the Summer School Cricket in Eden Gardens ended when he was only 21. It is remarkable that many begin their career at 21! In football, he played up to the third division for Sarat Samity. But clearly, he had shown much more promise in Cricket as a wicketkeeper-batsman.

In the later years, Gautam did turn out for Office and the East Zone Journalists’ Team at the All-India J K Bose Trophy. For the journalist team, he recorded a dream he wanted to achieve from his childhood days of getting an unbeaten hundred at the Eden Gardens. The opponent bowling attack comprised of the formidable Subroto Guha, Samar Chakraborty and Soumen Kundu. As a captain he led them to victory at Chandigarh. “An away series win is always more refreshing than a home series victory, “he was to quip after receiving the All-India J K Bose trophy from Navjyot Singh Sidhu.

But if you asked him what so far has constituted the biggest thrill in his 40-year-old journalistic career, he would invariably talk about recording a century partnership at Cape Town in 1992.

Gautam scored 70 and the batsman at the other end, as normal as it has been all his life went on to get a hundred. The opponents were the formidable South African Journalists. And Gautam’s partner at the other end was the legendary Sunil Gavaskar! Till date Gautam maintains he is ready to forego all his exclusives for the same experience.