Firdaus Kanga

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Firdaus Kanga on the cover of his film Sixth Happiness

Firdaus Kanga (b. 1962, Bombay) is a writer and actor who lives in London. He has written a novel, Trying to Grow and a travel book Heaven on Wheels about his experiences in the United Kingdom. Trying to Grow was later turned into am award-winning BBC-BFI film, Sixth Happiness, for which Kanga wrote the screenplay, and in which he starred. Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard said of Sixth Happiness: "Firdaus Kanga's performance has battery pack power...a remarkable true story."

Sixth Happiness is about Brit - a boy who never grows taller than four feet. It is also about the Parsi or Parsees - descendants of the Persian empire who were driven out of Persia by an Islamic invasion more than a thousand years ago and settled in western India. Parsees had a close relationship with the British during the years of the Raj. Brit is named by his mother, both after his brittle bones, and in tribute to his mother's love of Britain. The depiction of the main character Brit's parents as ardent Anglophiles with fond memories of the Raj presents a glimpse of a non-stereotypical Indian family - this, alongwith the moving story of a young man's sexual awakening as family life crumbles around him makes Sixth Happiness an interesting exploration of modern India. Kanga's creation - both as writer and performer - resists drawing the main star Brit as either martyr or victim. Brit is bright, spiky, opinionated and selfish with a razor-sharp tongue. He prefers the Kama Sutra to Shakespeare and does not allow gender to come in the way of his desire for sex.

With powerhouse performances from Kanga and Faress, and featuring great support from Nina Wadia (Goodness Gracious Me), Indira Varma (Bride and Prejudice) and Meera Syal (The Kumars at No. 42), Sixth Happiness manages to turn just about every stereotype about India, disability and sexuality on its head.

Firdaus Kanga was born with Osteogenesis imperfecta, and Trying to Grow' is a fictional autobiography.

Kanga was born in Bombay in the westernised Parsi community, and his writing centres on dealing with disability and sexuality.