Devyani Chaubal (1942 – 13 July 1995) was an Indian journalist and columnist. She is best known for her fortnightly column, "Frankly Speaking" in popular

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film magazine ''Star and Style'' through the 1960s and 1970s, she also wrote for Eve's Weekly. She was the first journalist to refer to

Rajesh Khanna Rajesh Khanna () (; born Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who worked in Hindi films. He is called as the "First Superstar of Hindi cinema", he consecutively starred in a record ...

as a superstar, in her ''Star & Style'' column.

Biography

She was born into a rich family in Maharashtra; her father was a prosperous

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

in Mumbai. Chaubal was a film gossip journalist, and among the first in Indian film journalism to have a poison pen and insinuate a lot in her columns. Until her arrival, Indian film journalism had been largely free of accusation and gossip. She wrote in a popular film magazine called '' Star and Style''. She had a lot of credibility and her "gossip" (delivered in a column called "Frankly Speaking") was always researched and had credible sources. The column was also carried in ''Eve's Weekly''. Chaubal was the first writer to use

Hinglish Hinglish, a portmanteau of Hindi and English, is the macaronic hybrid use of English and languages of the Indian subcontinent, and especially Hindi. It involves code-switching or translanguaging between these languages whereby they are freely i ...

in her English works, with words like "badans" (bodies) and "kachra" (garbage).

Shobha De Shobha De ('' née'' Rajadhyaksha, formerly Kilachand; born 7 January 1948) is an Indian novelist and columnist. She is best known for her depiction of socialites and sex in her works of fiction, for which she has been referred to as the "Jackie ...

then began to use Hinglish elements in her novels. Later in life she suffered a paralytic stroke in 1985, thereafter she was largely using a wheelchair and later bedridden. However she continued to write her column, almost till her death in 1995, at age 53.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaubal, Devyani Journalists from Maharashtra 1942 births 1995 deaths Indian film critics Indian columnists Writers from Mumbai 20th-century Indian women writers Indian women film critics Indian women columnists 20th-century Indian journalists 20th-century Indian women journalists Women writers from Maharashtra People from Mumbai