Midnight's Children | |
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Directed by | Deepa Mehta |
Produced by | David Hamilton Doug Mankoff Steven Silver Neil Tabatznik Andrew Spaulding |
Written by | Deepa Mehta |
Story by | Salman Rushdie |
Based on | Midnight's Children |
Starring | Satya Bhabha Shriya Saran Shabana Azmi Anupam Kher Siddharth Narayan Shahana Goswami Samrat Chakrabarti Rahul Bose Seema Biswas Darsheel Safary |
Cinematography | Giles Nuttgens |
Editing by | Colin Monie |
Studio | Relativity Media |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox Fox Star Studios |
Release date(s) | October 2012 |
Country | Canada United States |
Language | English |
Midnight's Children is an upcoming film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, the film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha,siddhath narayan, Shriya Saran, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. It is scheduled to release in late 2012.
The film began principal photography in Colombo, Sri Lanka in February 2011 and wrapped in May 2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.[1]
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In 2008, Mehta and Salman Rushdie decided to collaborate on a film together. At first Mehta wanted to adapt his novel Shalimar the Clown, but she eventually decided on Midnight's Children instead. Rushdie spent the next two years paring down the 600-page book into a 130-page script.[8]
The casting process began in early 2010. For the role of the protagonist Saleem Sinai Mehta wanted Imran Khan, but his salary was outside of the film's budget. She decided to cast British actor Satya Bhabha instead after seeing video of him performing in a play.[8] Kangna Ranaut and Rani Mukerji were originally cast as Emerald and Amina, but both had to be replaced due to scheduling conflicts.[9] Irrfan Khan was also forced to pull out due to conflicts with Life of Pi[10] and Nandita Das opted out of the film after she had her first child.[11] Rahul Bose (who had earlier been slated to play Saleem in the BBC's aborted version of the novel) was selected for the role of Emerald's husband Zulfikar and Shabana Azmi was cast as Saleem's grandmother Naseem.[12] Shriya Saran, who worked with Mehta before in Cooking with Stella (2009), will play the role of Saleem's wife Parvati.[13]
Principal shooting began in February 2011 in Colombo, Sri Lanka as Mehta feared protests by Muslim fundamentalists if the film was shot in Pakistan and by Hindu fundamentalists if it was made in Mumbai.[8] Cast members had secrecy clauses added to their contracts to help keep the production quiet. Production design was handled by Mehta's brother Dilip Mehta. Under his direction, authentic Delhi-style furniture, props and costumes were shipped in from India. Shooting was briefly interrupted when Iran complained to the Sri Lanka government about the film and the crew was ordered to halt production. Mehta appealed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa who agreed to let filming continue. Winds of Change was the working title of the film during the shooting. Filming lasted a total of 69 days from February to May 2011. In all, 800 extras were used.[8]The Film features Sri Lanka's most original vintage cars and the best colonial type residencies in Colombo.
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