Actress and social activist Shabana Azmai 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 Aug 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 it”,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.“ Mehta, who has read the book twice so far, said: “In literature there are only a handful of characters that remain indelible in my mind. On top of my list is Saleem, the protagonist of Salman‘s brilliant novel Midnight‘s Children”. Mehta, Rushdie and Azmi are in New York to participate in the MIAAC Film Festival. The five-day festival opened with the New York premier of Mehta‘s latest film Heaven On Earth starring Preity Zinta.
-IANS
