Gotham Chopra

Gotham Chopra (Hindi: गौतम चोपड़ा; (born Gautama Chopra on February 23, 1975) is an American author and entertainment/media entrepreneur.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Chopra was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Deepak Chopra. He attended Belmont Hill School. Gotham was an undergraduate student at Columbia University.

Career

He started his career as a correspondent and news anchor for Channel One News, a short television program shown in selected high schools throughout the United States, and went on to host the program 'Current Soul' for Current TV. In 2002, he published an account of his travels and interviews entitled Familiar Strangers: Uncommon Wisdom in Unlikely Places with Doubleday. He was story editor for the comic book Bulletproof Monk and executive producer for the 2003 film adaptation starring Chow Yun-fat. His first book, Child of the Dawn, a parable based on the principles of his father's highly successful book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, was published in 1996, and written while Chopra was still an undergraduate college student at Columbia University.

Around the time he began his career at Channel One News, Chopra changed the spelling of his given name from "Gautama" to "Gotham." Chopra said that he changed the spelling because he was tired of "Gautama" being mispronounced in the United States. The pronunciation of both versions is the same.

Gotham is a partner in Chopra Media, with his sister, Mallika Chopra. Together they launched IntentBlog and Virgin Comics. In September 2008, Gotham and Virgin Comics co-founder, Sharad Devarajan led a management buyout of Virgin Comics and renamed the Company, Liquid Comics.

On July 3, 2009, Chopra gave an interview on CNN's Larry King Live at Neverland Ranch saying that he knew pop star Michael Jackson through his father for over two decades. He had also written about his friendship with Jackson on June 26, 2009 in the Huffington Post. He wrote about Jackson calling him at his dorm when he was a student at Columbia, asking him to help write lyrics for songs and about working with Jackson at his hotel suite in Manhattan as an informal "lyrical advisor." He recalled how Jackson called him at night "in a panic" after he had just married Lisa Marie Presley and asked him if he had any sex advice. He said he first met Jackson when he was 15 and spent days at the Neverland Ranch with his friends, sisters and cousins. He recalled Jackson's visits to his parents' house and spending a summer with Jackson on the Dangerous Tour. He said their relationship continued after they both became fathers and recalled going to Jackson's house a few years ago with his wife Candice (a physician) to help when Paris Jackson had an accidental fall. He said parenting was the focus of his last conversations with Jackson in the last few months before Jackson's death.

Following the Newark Airport Incident where Shahrukh Khan was detained for two hours, Gotham Chopra stated:

"It's not just American customs agents being provincial, it's the fact that I would guess that in India alone, there are several million Khans. I'm not joking. Khan is one of the most common Muslim names and India is not even an Islamic country. "Ghengis Khan," anyone? Khan is like Jones or Smith. This is how our security works in the US? This is how we are catching terrorists? Are you kidding me?"

Works

• Bulletproof Monk (story editor)
• Child of the Dawn
• Familiar Strangers: Uncommon Wisdom in Unlikely Places
• The Sadhu
• Walking Wisdom
• Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes

External links

• Liquid Comics
• Gotham's personal blog on Intent.com
• Blog to which Gotham Chopra contributes
• Hindu epic Ramayana reborn in comics The Standard - January 24, 2006