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Deepa to make film on Rushdie's Midnight's Children
Acclaimed Indian Canadian director Deepa Mehta will make a film based on Midnight's Children, the Booker of Bookers Prize winning
novel by India born British author Salman Rushdie. The writer himself will appear in the film, which is expected to be completed by 2010,
Rushdie and Mehta announced on Thursday. Actress and social activist Shabana Azmi has agreed to act in the proposed film, so has
Seema Biswas of Bandit Queen fame. Actress Nandita Das will also be in the cast. Making the announcement on the sidelines of the
ongoing MIAAC Film Festival, Rushdie and Mehta said they will be co writing the screenplay on the novel, which is spread over 600
pages.
Published in 1981, Midnight's Children is the fictional memoir of Saleem Sinai, one of 1,001 children born at the stroke of midnight on
August 15, 1947. "I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Saleem, his journey, and the incredible world he inhabits to the
screen. To collaborate with Salman on the script, to have access to his humour and his sensibility is a process I am immensely looking
forward to," Mehta said.
The two celebrities of Indian origin have been working on the project for quite some time now, they said, adding that they would soon sit
down to start writing the script. Delighted that Mehta has agreed to make a film on Midnight's Children, Rushdie said, "Her passion for the
book, combined with her immense talent as a filmmaker, means that my novel has been placed in the best possible hands." |
