Frontlist | Vikramaditya Motwane, Sudhir Mishra discuss book-to-screen adaptations at Jaipur Lit Fest

Sudhir Mishra added, “I am a failed novelist. I started writing a novel but the whole process is so lonely. A lot of people call my films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, where characters travel across, novelistic. It is very scary (to adapt a book into a movie) because of the reputation. I think I became a better filmmaker because of the book Serious Men (written by Manu Joseph). For screen adaptations, you have to almost rewrite the novel for the screen, while keeping its essence and incidents.” He added, “I am glad that writers are finally getting their due.”

Vikram Chandra, who wrote the book Sacred Games shared why books can’t be literally translated for the screen, which is something authors need to understand. He said, “When these guys first told me about the draft of the pilot it was actually pretty late in the process. I thought, ‘What the hell?’, because the structure necessarily has to change, the characters have to change (for screen). Dhakka laga tha for like 10 minutes. But when I thought about it, I started to see the logic in it. You can’t have a detective think in a cinematic way for 40 pages, which can happen in a book. You have to get the thing moving. It was wonderful and surreal because I lived with these characters for decades.”Giving examples of films and series such as The White Tiger, Serious Men, Bridgerton and Mismatched, Monika Shergill said that a lot of books are being adapted for the screen. She said, “Two out of three viewers of Sacred Games were actually out of India. That is the power of the story of a book originating from one corner of the world and then suddenly blowing up and travelling across. I think for streaming platforms to come and look at literature to find stories is really exciting now.” Read More: In an entirely virtual avatar, Jaipur Literature Festival 2021 eyes 10 mm viewers Source: Times of India