Premchand (July 31, 1880 – October 8, 1936) was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi-Urdu writers of the early twentieth century. A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the "Upanyas Samrat" ("Emperor of Novels") by some Hindi writers.