Zara Chowdhary was awarded the 2025 Shakti Bhatt Prize for her debut work, The Lucky Ones. Her memoir examines her family’s trauma to document three months of sectarian violence in her hometown of Ahmedabad. Set during the 2002 riots, when Chowdhary was just 16, it is also the story of a trapped, severely dysfunctional family caught up in the tides of Indian history.

Chowdhary will receive a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

The Shakti Bhatt Prize will be discontinued after this year’s award. Originally called The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, in later years it became a prize that honoured a writer’s body of work. However, this year the prize ended the way it began in 2008 – by awarding a debut author.

For 17 years, the Shakti Bhatt Prize has recognised literature from the South Asian subcontinent, giving the award to writers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India. Administered, judged, curated and funded by writers, the Prize was independent and did not involve any corporate sponsors.

The Shakti Bhatt Foundation, which set up the prize, has received financial contributions from author and journalist TJS George, journalist Sheela Bhatt, and academic Thomas Kailath.

The Shakti Bhatt Prize complete list of winners over the years:

• Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, 2008

• Mridula Koshy, If It Is...

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