Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Nair makes Seth’s story suitable for UK audience

BBC ADAPTATION OF INDIAN NOVEL WILL FEATURE ONLY ASIAN CHARACTERS

by AMIT ROY


INDIAN AMERICAN filmmaker Mira Nair has spoken exclusively about how she is progressing with her adaptation of Vikram Seth’s 1,349-page novel, A Suitable Boy, for BBC 1.

Nair is certainly a busy woman. She is now locked away in a studio deep into editing the six-part TV series, which will be one of the BBC’s biggest drama projects for years. She is also choosing the cast – mainly in the UK – for a musical version of her 2001 hit film, Monsoon Wedding, which will be staged this summer at the Leeds Playhouse followed by the Roundhouse in London, The good news is that filming is complete.

Though the director is not enjoying the wet and cold weather in London after the sun and warmth and enjoyable anarchy of India, she did say: “I am looking happy, right? We have completed (editing) the first two episodes and now we are onto three, four, five and six. I heard it’s a summer 2020 release (in) July. But I don’t have a date.”

For 20 years after Seth’s novel was published in 1993, the consensus among drama commissioning editors was that British audiences were not yet ready for television that had only non-white characters.

Granada Television’s The Jewel in The Crown, adapted from Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet novels, was a huge success in 1984. However, it was not about India or Indians in India but about the life and loves of the British rulers in India as the curtains fell on the Raj.

In marked contrast, there are only Indian characters in A Suitable Boy, which is set four years after independence in 1947, as the country prepares for its first general election in 1951-1952.

As India finds its voice, so does Lata, a 19-year-old girl, whose widowed mother, Mrs Rupa Mehra, is obsessed with finding a suitable husband for her daughter, who is getting far too independent for her liking.

“So that’s very much the spine of our story,” observed Nair.

The script is by an Englishman, Andrew Davies, an acknowledged master of the craft, who has been helped by Seth and Nair.

“We all are working closely together to make sure that we get it right, we get the density of it, the politics and the story of a free India, how as a country comes to its own voice, a young woman, Lata, also finds her voice,” she said.

No one has counted the number of characters in Seth’s novel, but Nair directed a cast of “113”.

So what is it like to direct 113 actors and actresses, all but one recruited in India (so a voice coach was not needed to give them authentic Indian accents, which might have been the case had she relied on British Asian talent)?

“Oh, it’s absolutely yummy!” she beamed. “It really is. I love actors and the talent in our country is so powerful. What I love to do is find new people and match them opposite legendary people, so we have the great actress Tabu opposite two of three of Lata’s suitors, who have never faced a camera before.”

She reeled off a list of names of cast members who are well known in India: “We have extraordinary people like Manoj Pahwa, Vinay Pathak, Ram Kapoor, Rasika Duggal and Shahana Goswami, who all pitched up and did this with me.”

Three cast members from A Suitable Boy will be in Monsoon Wedding the musical. Namit Das, who plays Haresh in A Suitable Boy, is cast as PK Dubey in the musical. Gagan Dev Riar will make the switch from Pran to Lalit Verma, and Sharvari Deshpande, who plays Malati, Lata’s outgoing and opinionated best friend in A Suitable Boy, has been cast as Ria in the musical.

“So there is confluence between the film series and the musical – a number of actors are seen in both,” Nair said.

Filming in north India took five months – “and it was all done on location”.

“We filmed in Lucknow and Maheshwar and Kanpur,” Nair revealed.

An important part of the novel, involving the Chatterji family whose younger members speak to each other in rhyming slang, is set in Calcutta. It is known that Seth put something of himself into the character of Amit Chatterji.

Since Calcutta of the 1950s had largely disappeared, Nair recreated the city, including its most famous thoroughfare, Chowringhee, in Lucknow.

“We found an extraordinary art deco home in Lucknow and recreated it for Calcutta,” Nair said.

Is the story from 70 years ago relevant to modern India – and the world beyond? “It is very relevant, remarkably relevant,” she replied.

“Despite Partition, the very deep and layered co-existence of Hindus and Muslim communities was an ancient line of friendship. But that begins to get threatened in the beginning of our story in 1951, post-Partition. At the heart of it are two families – Hindu and Muslim – (who are) very closely knit. And (there is) a romance between a young Hindu girl, Lata, and her cricket star who happens to be Muslim, and how the wounds of Partition are really impossible to forget.”

Also “(the seeds of the dispute over) the Babri Masjid, the seeds of it – building a temple near a mosque – started happening in Vikram’s story in the ’50s. We are (now) also seeing the tensions that come from that. Which is uncannily prescient in terms of what is happening in India,” she said.

More For You

'Santosh' review: Feminist police drama confronts harsh truths

A scene from 'Santosh'

'Santosh' review: Feminist police drama confronts harsh truths

POLICE corruption, caste politics, and dangerous interfaith liaisons are at the heart of Santosh, a feature by British Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri. She turns the title on its head – Santosh, regarded more widely as a male name, is the protagonist, played by the versatile Shahana Goswami.

Santosh’s husband, a police constable in a north Indian village, is killed in the line of duty. Or so it appears.

Keep ReadingShow less
Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson recalls feeling ‘so gross’ after hearing SNL’s viral joke backstage

Getty Images

​Scarlett Johansson slams SNL’s 'gross' vagina joke: ‘It was intense. I felt like I’d pass out!'

Scarlett Johansson has finally addressed the jaw-dropping joke about her that aired during Saturday Night Live’s holiday episode in December. Her husband, Colin Jost, was made to deliver the punchline live on air, and Johansson, watching from backstage, was left stunned. In a recent interview with InStyle, she described the moment as “so gross” and admitted she couldn’t believe the show went that far.

The joke was part of the show’s annual “Weekend Update” tradition, where Jost and his co-host Michael Che write outrageous jokes for each other to read without any prior warning. This time, Che handed Jost a line that compared Johansson to a Costco roast beef sandwich in a joke about their sex life. When Jost read it aloud, the audience gasped. Meanwhile, cameras backstage caught Johansson’s reaction mouth open, clearly shocked.

Keep ReadingShow less
Amitabh Bachchan

The veteran actor invests in a 54,454 sq ft plot, just 10 km from Ram Mandir

Getty Images

Amitabh Bachchan buys prime land near Ram Mandir in Ayodhya for father’s memorial

Amitabh Bachchan has purchased a second plot of land in Ayodhya, this time a large 54,454 square foot piece, located roughly 10 kilometres from the newly consecrated Ram Mandir. The land was bought through the Harivansh Rai Bachchan Trust, an organisation set up by the actor in 2013 to honour his late father, the renowned poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

This latest purchase adds to Bachchan’s earlier investment in Ayodhya. In January 2024, he bought land in a premium township called Haveli Avadh for ₹4.54 crore. Reports suggest that property was meant for residential use. Now, sources indicate the newly acquired land could be developed into a memorial dedicated to his father’s life and literary legacy.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stan Lee’s

A new documentary sheds light on the lesser-known struggles Stan Lee faced behind the scenes

Getty Images

Stan Lee’s tragic final years: Shocking new documentary exposes elder abuse and exploitation

Stan Lee spent his life bringing superheroes to the world—Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, and so many more. But behind the joyful cameos and conventions, his last years were marked by serious exploitation. A new documentary, Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, talks about the dark, uncomfortable truth about what really happened.

The film is being put together by Jon Bolerjack, who worked closely with Lee during his final four years. Bolerjack wasn’t just an assistant; he was a witness to what many believe was the mishandling and manipulation of an ageing legend. According to Bolerjack, Lee was constantly pushed to sign memorabilia and make public appearances, despite his poor health. In video clips already shared, Lee appears exhausted while being shuffled between events.

Keep ReadingShow less
Telugu actor Mohan Babu accused of murdering actress Soundarya in 2004

Actor Mohan Babu faces renewed allegations linked to actress Soundarya’s tragic death, 22 years later

Instagram/actresssoundarya

Telugu actor Mohan Babu accused of murdering actress Soundarya in 2004

Two decades after the tragic death of actress Soundarya, new allegations have surfaced against veteran Telugu actor Mohan Babu. A social activist in Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district has filed a complaint accusing him of having a role in Soundarya’s untimely demise.

Soundarya, a much-loved star in South Indian cinema, was 31 years old and reportedly pregnant when she died in a private plane crash on April 17, 2004. She and her brother, Amarnath, were flying to Karimnagar to participate in a political campaign for the BJP and TDP when the aircraft went down. Tragically, their bodies could not be recovered from the wreckage.

Keep ReadingShow less