Gajra Kottary

Gajra Kottary is an Indian screenplay writer and television writer.

Early life
Gajra Kottary was born in Delhi, India, and was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary and Lady Shri Ram College for Women. In 1988, she completed the post-graduate course in Journalism at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and received The Hindu Gold Medal. She worked briefly as a journalist, initially at The Statesman and later at the Magna group. Kottary also wrote on developmental and women's issues for CHOICES, the magazine of the United Nations Development Program.

Career
Gajra debuted as an author in early 1996 with her first collection of women-centric short stories, titled Fragile Victories. This was followed by The Last Laugh. Her debut novel, Broken Melodies, was published in 2011 along with its Hindi translation by Bikhre Sur. Gajra subsequently co-authored her first original Hindi novel, Kora Kaagaz.

Following this was her first long running daily of 668 episodes, the award-winning Astitva...Ek Prem Kahani. She later wrote 2175 episodes on 12 April 2016 for Balika Vadhu, on Colors TV. It has been entered as the longest running Hindi soap on Indian Television in the Limca Book of Records 2016.

Gajra has also written the story for the 55 episode serial Buddha. She has written Jyoti, Godh Bharai, Panaah, Ghar Ek Sapna and Ek Veer ki Ardaas. She is a creative producer for Zee's Zindagi channel, namely TV Ke Uss Paar and Khwaabon Ki Zamin Par.

Awards
Gajra Kottary has won the Indian Television Academy Award, RAPA award, Indian Telly Award, Apsara Award and the Global Indian Television's Best Writer Award.

Fiction

 * The Last Laugh (2003)
 * Broken melodies (2011)
 * Once Upon a Star (2014)
 * Girls Don't Cry (2017)