For a man who built his literary career on the chaos and contradictions of India’s middle class, Chetan Bhagat’s latest twist is almost cinematic. Like several Mumbai celebrities, the bestselling author, screenwriter and former banker has quietly traded the noise of the city for the calm of Dubai. But unlike the usual celebrity migration motivated by glamour or tax perks, Bhagat’s move, now nearly a year and a half old, was about something rarer: silence.
A search for stillness
“I was looking for a peaceful space in my life and Dubai offered me the quiet I was looking for,” he told City Times, a lifestyle supplement of Khaleej Times. The irony isn’t lost on anyone familiar with Dubai Marina’s glitzy image, but Bhagat insists the stereotype misses the city’s subtler side. “Most people have an Instagram idea of Dubai, often seen as a hyper-luxurious destination and endless parties. But there is a 5 a.m. Dubai too,” he said, describing early risers jogging along the waterfront, swimmers braving the open sea, and yoga enthusiasts greeting the dawn. “It is a city on the move, in the right direction.” His apartment overlooking Marina Walk serves as both retreat and workspace. Here, Bhagat says, he jogs, meets friends, and most importantly, writes. The view is far from monastic, but for a writer wrestling with distraction, the calm is hard-won.
From fame to ‘Deep Work ’
In an interview with 94.3 Radio One, Bhagat traced his shift to the philosophy of “deep work,” inspired by Cal Newport’s book of the same name. “What I was doing was all over the place,” Bhagat said. “YouTuber, Instagram, TV shows—it’s kind of like the whole Chetan Bhagat thing. While it’s good for PR and name recognition, it’s not satisfying as I age. It’s not giving me the sense that I’m mastering something.” He realised, as he put it, that “you have to cut out other things and isolate yourself and devote yourself to your work, slash art, whatever it is you do, if you really are interested in taking it to the next level. So I moved to Dubai. I still have my place in Mumbai. I come, do a lot of back and forth every month. I’m in and out, but I live literally alone to write 12 Years, alone and away from the fame, away from the Chetan Bhagat brand, being aware that I’m this best-selling writer. And I think the magic shows in this book, because people have been telling me this book has soul. That the old Chetan Bhagat is there,” he told Radio One.
A love story reborn
That “old Chetan Bhagat” re-emerges in his latest novel, 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story, released in October 2025. The book, which Bhagat says is “extremely close to my heart and one of my best, if not the best,” returns to the themes that made him famous: love, ambition, and modern India’s emotional tug-of-war between progress and tradition. The story follows Saket, a struggling stand-up comic, and Payal, a private equity professional, as they navigate a relationship defined by age difference, ambition, and cultural expectations. The novel’s emotional depth, Bhagat admits, came from the solitude Dubai afforded him. “That level of depth comes when I’m away,” he told Radio One. “Dubai helps me because it’s still not far from India, but it’s still a foreign land. There are a lot of Indians, but where I live there aren’t that many.”
Reconnecting with the craft
In Dubai, he found what he calls “the joy of creating,” something fame had nearly taken away. “Publicity is nice. Launches are nice. But honestly, they’re not giving me as much joy as they used to,” he said. “The biggest joy was creating it, working with the editors, writing it. When your own intrinsic work is giving you joy—not the claps from outside—that’s a very good space to be. So I think that’s why I moved.” Bhagat’s move mirrors a quiet migration of Indian artists and entrepreneurs seeking a balance between productivity and privacy. Yet, in his case, the relocation also marks an evolution—from India’s everyman storyteller to an artist rediscovering discipline and solitude. Dubai, a city often defined by its pace, seems to have taught him stillness. And in that stillness, Chetan Bhagat appears to have found his next great story, not in the noise of ambition, but in the quiet where creation finally speaks.
