Facts about Arundhati Roy
- 09
Arundhati Roy donated the entire 1 million pound advance from her Booker Prize to social causes, refusing to accept what she viewed as unearned wealth from literary acclaim.
- 08
Between 1966 and 1988, Arundhati Roy worked as an architect, structural designer, and television and film writer before her debut novel catapulted her to international literary prominence.
- 07
Arundhati Roy's father Rajib Roy was a Bengali film director and screenwriter who significantly influenced her early creative pursuits in cinema and storytelling.
- 06
Roy's screenplay for the 1994 film Irutti Nangal earned her a National Film Award, preceding her literary fame by three years.
- 05
During the 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, Arundhati Roy publicly opposed Indian military nationalism, facing significant backlash from nationalist groups in her home country.
- 04
Her second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, published in 2017 after two decades without fiction, spans multiple decades of Indian history and runs over 560 pages.
- 03
Arundhati Roy's 2003 collection of essays The Algebra of Infinite Justice addressed post-9/11 geopolitics and established her as a prominent political commentator beyond fiction.
- 02
In 2002, Arundhati Roy was arrested during anti-dam protests in India and charged with contempt of court for her activism against the Narmada Valley Dam Project.
- 01
The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize for Arundhati Roy, making her the first Indian-born author to receive the award.