Authour Salman Rushdie, whose “Midnight’s Children” is being adapted for a Netflix series, says the book has had many incarnations, and he would be interested in a Broadway musical on it too if someone is keen to make it.
The announcement that Netflix has selected the novel about the amazing aftermath of India’s Partition into two countries, to make into a series, prompted thoughts on the feature film that Rushdie’s filmmaker friend Deepa Mehta had made from the novel in 2013.
So why another screen version of “Midnight’s Children”‘
Rushdie said: “‘Midnight’s Children’ has had many incarnations. First a novel, then a Royal Shakespeare Company’s stage play, a BBC radio serial and a film. If anyone wants to make it into a Broadway musical, I would be interested in that too! A life in one medium, one art form, does not preclude a new life in another.”
Asked about Mehta’s thoughts on a new avatar for a book she had so diligently filmed, Rushdie said: “I discussed the Netflix project with Deepa Mehta before the announcement and she was excited, and 100 per cent supportive.”
For many years, “Midnight’s Children” was considered unfilmable. But Rushdie disagrees.
“Nothing is unfilmable. Good films have been made of ‘Anna Karenina’, ‘Ulysses’, ‘The Tin Drum’, even (Marcel) Proust. It’s just a question of finding the way, and that’s what we tried to do. There’s no magic trick. Just hard work.”
By Subhash K. Jha
