Karan Bajaj

Karan Bajaj was born in India, where he was brought up in a family with military roots.[7] He has a master's degree in Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and a B.A diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.[8][3]

Prior to founding Whitehat Jr, Karan Bajaj worked for a number of companies including Procter & Gamble, The Boston Consulting Group[9] and Kraft Foods.[10][3] In 2016, he moved to Mumbai as CEO of Discovery Networks, where he headed Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and Discovery Kids in South Asia.[1][11]

Karan Bajaj left Discovery Networks in 2019 after the dismal performance of Discovery Network's Hindi GEC channel "Jeet". Jeet was shortly shutdown and Karan was fired.

In 2018, he started WhiteHat Jr, an online educational company which ostensibly claimed to target young children to improve their coding skills. At its initial stage, the company secured funding from Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and Owl Ventures. In 2020, WhiteHat Jr. was acquired for $300 million by BYJU'S. The company was integrated in BYJU'S coding teaching division.[1][4][3][5] There have been allegations that Karan Bajaj and WhiteHat Jr have engaged in unethical and unfair business practices. Karan Bajaj filed a defamation lawsuit of ₹20 crores against online activist Pradeep Poonia, who has been critical of WhiteHat Jr's business practices and alleged scam operations.[12]

WhiteHat Jr. has been widely criticised for its marketing practices like its commercial featuring a fictious kid named 'Wolf Gupta' working as AI developer at Google at annual package in crores.[13] YouTuber Pradeep Poonia published a series of videos and tweets criticizing WhiteHat Jr's marketing tactics, training material, and quality of training. WhiteHat Jr filed a lawsuit against Pradeep Poonia alleging infringement of trademarks and copyrights, invasion of privacy, defamation, mischief, and torts of inducing breach of contract. Poonia in turn claimed that he was being harassed by the company, and said that his videos and posts about WhiteHat Jr were frequently subject to takedown notices and copyright claims. WhiteHat Jr filed a defamation suit against Poonia, reportedly asking for $2.6 million (roughly Rs. 19,28,36,700) in damages.[14][15][16][17]

WhiteHat Jr has also been found to violate guidelines issued by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), for making dubious and unsubstantiated claims.[18] ASCI found that five of the company's commercials were in violation of advertising code, which includes making misleading claims, following which, the company had to pull down the commercials.[19] The company has also been accused of using corporate censorship tactics on social media.[20]

Keep Off The Grass is Bajaj's first story, about a psychedelic road trip of a 25-year-old Yale graduate through the length and breadth of India.[21] The journey is made by a youngster protagonist named Samrat, born to immigrant parents in the U.S. who decides to go out in search of his roots. Along the way, Samrat is jailed for possession of marijuana, develops a drug addiction, meditates in the foothills of the Himalayas, has a one-night stand with a hippie in Dharamsala and meets flesh-eating Aghoree saints on the banks of Varanasi.[21][10]

Bajaj's second novel, Johnny Gone Down, is a thriller published by HarperCollins in 2010. The novel's narrative is focused on the "bizarre, almost surreal series of events that transform an MIT graduate into first a genocide survivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, a software mogul, and a deadly game fighter over a period of twenty years."[10][22] Although some literary critics noted "too fast narrative of unfolding events and awkward climax", the book generally received positive reviews.[23] In 2017, Ronnie Screwvala and Ashi Dua were signed on as co-producers for the screen adaptation of Johnny Gone Down.[24]

The Seeker, was published by Penguin Random House in June 2015. The novel is about an investment banker in New York who embarks on a quest to become a yogi in the Himalayas.[25] The plot was inspired by Bajaj's one-year sabbatical traveling from Europe to India, learning Hath yoga in an ashram in India, and practicing meditation in the Himalayas. The book opened to strong reviews in India and was a bestseller at launch with several reviewers comparing it to Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.[26][27][28] The Seeker was published internationally as The Yoga of Max's Discontent by the Riverhead Books imprint of Penguin Random House in May 2016.[29]

The copyrights for the Keep off the Grass screen adaptation were sold to Mosaic Media Group in 2009 with Ben Rekhi signed up as director.[9] In 2017, Ronnie Screwvala and Ashi Dua were signed on as co-producers for the screen adaptation of Johnny Gone Down.[30]

Karan is married to Kerry Bajaj. They have two daughters, Rumi and Leela.[31] Bajaj practices yoga, having trained with Sivananda Ashram in Madurai.[5]

• Author's website
• Film Interview