MUMBAI: It was a best-seller when it was released a score and more years ago. Now, Vikram Seth’s "A Suitable Boy" is catching the attention in Britain as it airs as a six-part series on BBC One during primetime. Directed by Mira Nair, it has a cast of 110 Asian actors and at the time of writing, four episodes of the show had been aired.
Nair, who is known to be pretty blunt when she speaks, has expressed that she wished she had the same production budget for A Suitable Boy as the makers of The Crown did.
According to published reports, the BBC invested pounds sterling 16 million (Rs 160 crore) on the six part series, making it about 2.67 million pounds (Rs 26-odd crore) an episode. As against that, The Crown had a budget of close to 10 million pounds an episode and about a 100 million pounds for the season.
Speaking to the Economist last week, Nair said: “The show has the magnificence and sweep of The Crown. Let me tell with my 30 years of experiencing of making films about my part of the world for the world, you never get the budget of The Crown. You get what you get and you have to be so assured and have an amazing team so that we can achieve that sweep. Every moment of A Suitable Boy is shot on location in forts, crumbling palaces, old havelis and refurbished bridges..we did all this to create a sense of that layering of history. We did that more with our experience our sensibility, our taste, and much less with oodles of money.”
She further added that she hoped that the BBC and media in England would reflect the diversity of its own people. “I have yearned for Goodness Gracious Me for over 20 years. It had such brilliant writing for television, yet it is not there anymore. And it’s not as if it is not there, but the talent exists in the British Asian scene. I don’t see it being fostered. Now, my British Asian friends are saying to now that the BBC has spent its wad on A Suitable Boy, they’ll say there’s no room for anymore this year. That’s the thinking that should sort of go away.”
Nair also disclosed that three years were spent on adapting it, after experienced script writer Andrew Davies worked with author Seth to churnout the adaptation of the 1400-odd page book into a tight screenplay.
“I got into the party much later. They did a fabulous job distilling the massive tome. I wanted it to be less Pride and Prejudice and more the world that I wanted to evoke at that time..to shift the balance. I wanted to integrate the politics so it reflects the India of now to integrate the politics of now,” she expressed. “The search for lover, the search for who we are, the search for who we would spend our lives with, those are universal searches. The story is timely but the politics of it is also remarkably timely. Remember at that time the Hindu Muslim community were so syncretic in their song, in their culture, their language, in their friendships and that is so sadly and in a targeted fashion being obliterated slowly and surely in the fabric of our Indian society.”
A Suitable Boy will air on Netflix later this year. It boasts a stellar cast: Tabu, Ishan Khattar, Tanya Maniktala, Rasika Duggal, Mahira Kakkar, Ram Kapoor, Gagan dev Riar, Vivek Gomber, Vivaan Shah, Shahana Goswami, Mikhail Sen, Namit Das, Randip Hooda, Amir Bhashir, Ranvir Shorey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vinay Pathak and Manoj Pahwa.
The series follows the story of four families held together by Mrs Rupa Mehra’s desire to find a good match for her daughter Lata in 1951-52. Interwoven is the story of a newly-independent India with all the pulls and pressures of its first general election and Hindu-Muslim religious strife.
It was shot on location in Lucknow, Maheshwar and Kanpur. Aradhna Seth’s Lookout Point was the production partner. Andrew Davies and Vikram Seth share the writing credits while the Hindi, Urdu and Awadhi dialogues are by Hriday Lani. The series is being distributed by Viniyard Films and the BBC.
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