He was extradited to Australia where he also spent two years in solitary confinement as a punishment for escaping prison. However, one cannot escape the long arm of law, as he was captured in Frankfurt in 1990. His time in India was indeed life altering. Guneet Monga poses with Kartiki Gonsalves, AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty internet says 'Gang of Oscars' How big will Chiyaan Vikram-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's Ponniyin Selvan 2 open at the box office? Trade expert predicts I knew I’d found a place I could love,” he says. Two hours after I arrived in Bombay, I tore up the onward ticket. I bought a ticket to Germany, with a 48-hour-long stopover in Bombay, as it was then. Two years later, he found himself on the run from Australian authorities, and he soon landed in India. To fuel his drug addiction, he turned to crime and in 1978, was convicted for bank robbery. It was a failed marriage and the loss of custody of his daughter that pushed him over the edge. However, he did turn his life around after authoring Shantaram, that has since gone on to sell over six million copies, and has been translated in 41 languages. From being a student activist in Melbourne University who established the first crèche for children of students in the early '70s, he went on to getting addicted to heroin, and later even turned to a life of crime, and was one of Australia’s most wanted men, before he escaped from prison and fled to India. Gregory David Roberts, author of the bestselling English novel Shantaram (2003), wears many hats - of a novelist, songwriter, speaker and artist, bringing one to the conclusion that his life has been anything but dull.

David roberts shantaram