Anuja Chauhan

Anuja Chauhan is an Indian novelist and screenwriter. As a writer, she is known for The Zoya Factor (2008), Battle For Bittora (2010), Those Pricey Thakur Girls (2013), The House That BJ Built (2015), Baaz (2017), Club You To Death (2021), and The Fast and the Dead (2023).

Born in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Chauhan spent most of her childhood in various cantonment towns in North India, as her father served in the Indian Army. He took premature retirement at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, migrating to Australia thereafter. She is the youngest of four sisters: Padmini, Rohini, Nandini, and Anuja. Her older sister Nandini Bajpai is also an author.

Chauhan did her schooling at the Army Public School, New Delhi, Sophia Girls Convent, Meerut Cantonment, and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Miranda House, Delhi University, and a post graduate diploma in mass communication from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Chauhan joined JWT in 1993 and in the next seventeen years was responsible for many memorable catchphrases, primarily for Pepsi Cola, India, such as "Yeh Dil Maange More!", "Mera Number Kab Aayega","Nothing official about it" and " Oye Bubbly". Over the years she worked with brands like Pepsi, Kurkure, Mountain Dew and Nokia, creating Pepsi's "Nothing official about it" campaign and advertising slogans such as Pepsi's "Yeh Dil Maange More" and "Oye Bubbly". Other popular catchphrases she worked on include Darr ke Aage Jeet Hai for Mountain Dew, Tedha Hai par Mera Hai for Kurkure, "Be a Little Dillogical", for Lays Chips and KitKat Break Banta Hai for Nestle Kit Kat. By 2003 and at age 33, she was one of the youngest vice-presidents in JWT. She features regularly in The Economic Times supplement Brand Equity's list of the ten hottest creative directors in India, and was ranked 26th in the 'creativerankings 2010', a list of the leading executive creative directors in Asia-Pac.

In August 2010, she resigned from her post of vice-president and Executive Creative Director at JWT to pursue a career in writing. She has remained active as an advertising consultant and was the only Indian to feature on the One Show Jury for the year 2011. In 2014, she started working on the Pepsi brand again, as a consultant for the Power of One team at JWT.

She started working on her first novel in 2006. Cricket became the setting of her novel The Zoya Factor, after her work on the Pepsi brand for 13 years and close association with cricket advertising. The Zoya Factor ran the danger of being dismissed as 'Mills and Boon-ish' but most reviewers were quick to praise the depth of the author's characters, her wicked descriptions and the authenticity of her Hinglish laced dialogue.

The Zoya Factor was optioned for a film by Shah Rukh Khans Red Chillies Entertainment production company. The option was for three years. Subsequently, the rights were purchased by Pooja Shetty Deora's Walkwater Films.

Her book Battle for Bittora was released in 2010 by actor Saif Ali Khan in Delhi in October 2010, to critical approval from India Today, Outlook, The Week^{[citation needed]} and Tehelka magazines.