Still others know him as the host of India’s first signature TV show, The Pritish Nandy Show that created history and made television chat shows popular. It also helped him launch Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd, a Company that has, over the past decade, made 25 films, some of them (like Kaante, Jhankaar Beats, Chameli, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Shabd, Pyaar Ke Side Effects) now acclaimed as cult movies.

Others know him for his stint in public life as Member of the Indian Parliament who, among his other achievements, won the UNESCO Award for restoration work in Mumbai. Or as the man who brought Indian art centrestage and as a painter who has held six critically acclaimed shows of his paintings and calligraphy, now in the best private collections. Or as the founder of People for Animals, India’s biggest animal rights NGO for which he received the prestigious International Humanitarian Award at the Genesis Awards in Hollywood, organised by the Humane Society of the United States in March 2012. Or simply, as the man who opened India’s first Cybercafé when no one had even heard of the internet.

Born in Kolkata, where he spent his young years as a poet, Pritish Nandy shifted to Mumbai in 1982 to join The Times of India as Publishing Director and Group Managing Editor. Between 1998 and 2004, he shared his time between Mumbai and New Delhi as a Member of Parliament. He lives in Mumbai with his books, his dogs, his family. You can meet him on twitter or at the occasional art show, a corner bookstore or at a movie premiere, usually his own.

Else, he celebrates his solitude.