Anita Pratap

Anita Pratap (born 23 December 1958) is an Indian writer and journalist. In 1983, she was the first journalist who interviewed LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran. She won the George Polk award for TV reporting for her television journalism related to the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban. She has written the book Island of Blood based on Sri Lanka. She was nominated as the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Ernakulam, Kerala, for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Early life Pratap was born in Kottayam, Kerala, in a Syro Malabar Catholic family. Her father was employed with a Tata Group enterprise, he was posted at different locations in India taking his family with him. As a child Pratap changed seven schools in eleven years. She passed Senior Cambridge from a Loreto School Kolkata and did her BA – English from Miranda House, New Delhi, in 1978 and diploma in journalism from Bangalore University.

Career After completing her diploma in journalism, Pratap was recruited by Arun Shourie, the then editor of The Indian Express in Delhi. She then transferred to Bangalore to live with her parents. Shortly after, she joined Sunday Magazine. Her interest in journalism was in international politics and that led her to the ethnic conflicts in Sri Lanka. She visited many sites to gather first-hand information. In 1983, she interviewed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran. Post 1993-bombings in Bombay (now Mumbai), she also interviewed Bal Thackeray for Time; he was the then the chief of Shiv Sena which was the leading opposition party in Maharashtra. In 1996, she joined CNN, her first experience as a television journalist. She worked from the Atlanta and the Bangkok bureaus for a short while to get experience. She then covered news on the Taliban's takeover of Kabul for which she was presented with the George Polk Award.

Switching to television from print media, Pratap also made various documentaries on social issues and arts. In Light Up the Sky, she showcases the transformation of insurgent Mizoram into a democratic state. Her documentary, Orphans of an Ancient Civilization, notes the plights of craftsmen and When The Soul Glows documents folk dance traditions. The Shabash Hallelujah was a documentary on the Naga Regiment. Co-authoring with a Bangalore-based photographer Mahesh Bhatt , she published her second book Unsung in 2007 which told stories of nine ordinary Indian people who served society.

Awards and honours 1997 – George Polk Award 1997 – Eminent Indian Award conferred by the Indo-American Society 1998 – Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Media Person

Personal life Her first marriage was to Pratap Chandran, and she has a son Zubin from that relationship, born when she was 22 years old. Pratap Chandran was a senior reporter at The Indian Express where the two met. She subsequently divorced Chandran and took custody of her son. In 1999, she married Arne Roy Walther, a Norwegian diplomat. This is also Walther's second marriage. In the film, Jaya interviews LTF leader Anna Bhaskaran, who is in turn, modelled on Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Works Books Island of Blood: Frontline Reports from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Other South Asian Flashpoints Unsung , co-authored with Mahesh Bhatt , a documentary and editorial photographer based in Bangalore.

Documentaries Orphans of an Ancient Civilization Light Up the Sky Shabash Hallelujah When the Soul Glows