Recent media reports about my Ramayana series being adapted to film led to several mediapersons calling and emailing me, wanting more info. I’ve already put a sampling of their questions alongwith my answers on the FAQ’s page. But here are the fully detailed answers issued through my publishers Penguin India:
After the success of your Ramayana series, people are waiting eagerly for y our Mahabharata. When is it being published?
I’m now on the final draft of my Mba, which is what I jokingly call my Mahabharata–the Ramayana was my graduate degree, and this is my MBA! I’ll be submitting the volumes as I revise them, starting in a few weeks, and the series will start appearing in bookstores sometime in 2008. For more information, please read the previous post, My Mahabharata: The Last Mile.
We heard recently (DNA, Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, etc) that your Ramayana series is being adapted to film? Details, please!
Yes. I can now confirm that there is a major adaptation of my Ramayana books in the works. Over the past several months, I received several substantial offers from major Hollywood studios and production houses including Warner Brothers, Sir Ben Kingsley Pictures, Michael Radford and Chris Rose, Future Group, Canyon Entertainment, Endeavour Agency, William Morris Agency, Adlabs Films, and people working with ILM (George Lucas’ special effects company), New Line Cinema, and the director and producer of 300, all of whom expressed their enthusiasm as huge fans of the books. I was most keen on Sir Ben Kingsley as I felt he had a keen understanding of our culture, being of Indian origin himself, and would make a terrific Vishwamitra as well! A representative of Sir Ben met me sometime last year, and after hectic negotiations, I finally signed an MoU and the first film is in development now. Production is expected to start in 2008. As of now, I can’t confirm the cast and crew of the film, but I do know that major names are attached. This is a major Hollywood production, with three films planned back-to-back and a total budget of well over half a billion dollars. Ironically, though, I’m told now that Sir Ben is no longer producing the films and that a major Hollywood studio is backing it instead. The budget per film is said to be $180 million, and all three films are to be shot in India, with even the VFX (Visual Effects) being done in Indian digital studios. As we all know, India is already outsourcing VFX for major Hollywood movies, so it’s about time we showed our magic on a film based on our own culture! The starcast and crew will be international and Indian mixed together, and the films are being produced for an international audience, with a major worldwide release. I’m told the starcast and crew are being finalized and negotiations are on even now. As and when they’re finalized, the producers will certainly publicize the news from LA.
Word is that you’ve been paid a fabulous sum for the rights?
Well, it’s a major production, and my fee is pegged to the budget of the film, as per Writers Guild standards–in fact, the percentage is exactly what the WGA is currently striking for in the USA. So yes, I guess I’m lucky to get a good deal, but as I said to every producer who approached me for the rights, the Ramayana is a public-domain property, why do you need to buy the rights to my retelling? Just remake Valmiki and you’ll have a great Ramayana film for free! But they still wanted to pay me millions for the rights to my books, so why should I refuse? Also, the series has sold around 445,000 copies worldwide, with at least a million readers, and more discovering it everyday, so I suppose there must be something in my version that appeals to a number of people.
The articles in DNA, Times of India, and Mumbai Mirror said that Michael Radford of Il Postino fame is directing the Ramayana films. Is this confirmed?
It’s true that Michael Radford did come to Mumbai and visit me twice recently, and we spent a couple of lovely afternoons talking about films in general and the Ramayana films in particular. But in the end, I believe another director is being engaged for the project. It also seems that the people backing Michael are aligned with another set of financial backers than the ones who are currently funding the films, so there seems to be some conflict there too! Both the conflicting producers are named Shah and are both NRIs, so I wonder if it’s some sort of sibling fall-out! Also, I believe Michael has issues with the religious and cultural aspects of the epics, and has admitted his discomfort with portraying them in a purely Indian fashion. I think he’s a great screenwriter and director but in order to do a great job of adapting epics like these–whether my versions or anyone else’s–it requires an implicit acceptance of Indian thought and philosophy. Michael had some concerns that he needs to resolve before taking on a task as challenging as these great epics. As of now, I’ve respectfully declined Michael’s offer and am not working with him on this or any other project. His producer Chris Rose has made a counter-offer to me regarding the Mahabharata series as well, which also I have refused.
Why aren’t the films based on your scripts? As a former scriptwriter for television and documentaries, wouldn’t you want to adapt the books yourself?
I was offered a fee of $750,000 to write the screenplay for the film, and I toyed around with notes and ideas for a while, but finally it would have meant taking valuable time off from writing my Mba–even perhaps abandoning the Mba altogether. I’m sure my readers will agree that it’s better for me to go on writing new books than to spend several more years adapting the old ones to the screen. So I declined.
Is the film adaptation of your Ramayana series books going to be an animated film? I read something about you writing an animated film.
The film adaptation of my Ramayana series is intended to be a live-action film with Indian actors, shot on actual locations as well as sets. It would be what’s called a VFX film these days, definitely not animation. However, I love the medium of animation and I am independently co-producing and directing an animation film based on an original story I’ve written, titled Mahabaalak with an Indian animation studio. I’m also co-producing a feature film with Prana Studios titled Sword of Dharma, also based on an original screenstory by me. These are both independent of the Ramayana films, and are being co-produced under the Epic India banner, which is also my website.
If you were given a chance to cast the Ramayana films, what would be your ideal cast?
When Sir Ben Kingsley and I spoke originally, before I sold the rights, he told me he had a number of prominent star friends whom he felt suited certain roles perfectly–Nicole Kidman for Supanakha, and she had apparently read the first book and loved it, Sir Anthony Hopkins for Sugreeva, Will Smith for a key role, Daniel Craig for Ravana, and we even discussed some possibilities for the Indian parts–Aishwarya for Sita, Amitabh Bachchan for Dasaratha, Abhishek as the grown-up Rama. I personally feel Shah Rukh would make a great Ravana, he would bring character and nuance to the part, add the shades of grey that are required. And Sir Ben himself would be a great Vishwamitra or even Vibhisena. I’m waiting just as eagerly to see who’s finally signed.
