Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; September 19, 2018)

Sonam Kapoor aka Sonam K Ahuja is a voracious reader. While working, she finishes ‘one book a week’ and when on a holiday, she doubles up her speed, the actress laughingly tells us as when we meet her for a chat during the Jio MAMI Word to Screen Initiative this year. The effervescent stylista says, “It was a conscious call to join this event because I wanted to be part of a movement that promotes reading and authors, in association with films. After all, these are the two things that I love the most — books and movies.” In a brief chat, she talks about her favourite paperbacks and discusses why she encourages the idea of novels being adapted for the big screen...

‘NOBODY READS MUCH TODAY’
Sonam rues, “Today’s generation doesn’t read much. It’s important to enjoy a book every week as it improves one’s vocabulary and writing skills.”

‘STORIES NEED TO REACH PEOPLE WHO DON’T READ BOOKS’
Calling writers the ‘backbone of every film’, the Neerja actress adds, “I love books because I have an overactive imagination and I like to be in another world. I do feel people today don’t have too much of an imagination, so the stories need to reach out to audiences who aren’t avid readers. I read The Handmaid’s Tale many years ago in high school and today, it’s a successful TV show.”

BOOKS TO FILMS
The style maven recently asked her industry friends to name the tomes that they feel deserved a screen adaptation. But there’s an ongoing debate about how films adapted from books, don’t retain the same values. Sonam tells us, “The reason you decide to adapt a novel onto screen is because you want the story’s basic essence to be translated on celluloid. So, it shouldn’t be much different, but carry its soul and spirit forward in an authentic way.”

Ask her which are her favourite adaptations and she smiles, “I like Sense And Sensibility and The Help. Among Indian works, I love Saraswatichandra and Devdas. Recently, I watched Sacred Games, which was terrific. Aisha was our film and I liked the way it was made. Even Lootera was beautiful and based on a short story. Sometimes, the movies are better than the books.”

CREATIVE INVOLVEMENT?
Apart from Aisha that was based on Jane Austen’s Emma, the Veere Di Wedding actress is currently working on two movies, which have been adapted from two bestsellers. She’s already kick-started shooting for The Zoya Factor while Battle For Bittora is in the pipeline. Is she creatively involved with the scripting of these films? Sonam avers, “It’s just been a few days since we started shooting for The Zoya Factor. The film was in planning for two years. As for Battle For Bittora, it’s happening next year.”

WEB SERIES OR A MOVIE?
Last year, the leggy actress had told us that she’s acquired the rights to Krishna Udayasankar’s Govinda. On prodding her about the status of that, she reveals, “We are definitely making Govinda. But currently, I’m trying to figure out whether it’s suitable for TV, the digital platform or cinema. Today, Baahubali and Padmaavat are doing well, so I’m hoping people will enjoy this one, too. However, it will take at least one or two years.”

Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; December 19, 2017)

Apart from old classics, Bollywood is also famous for on-screen adaptations of several novels. There have been quite a few books being translated on the silver screen in the recent past and now, Sonam Kapoor has bought the rights to two bestsellers — Anuja Chauhan’s Battle For Bittora and Krishna Udayasankar’s Govinda.

Earlier, there were reports of Farhan Akhtar and Fawad Khan being cast opposite Sonam in the screen adaptation of Battle For Bittora. Though there has been no further development on this film, the actress is keen on making it soon. However, the news of her buying the rights of Govinda by Udayasankar, who lives in Singapore, has been kept under wraps until now. The Pad Man actress says, “Both (Battle For Bittora and Govinda) can be made into films, and I’m going to do it.”

Govinda is the first in a three-part series, written by Udayasankar, which is a modern retelling of Mahabharata. The three books (Govinda, Kaurava, and Kurukshetra) collectively is called The Aryavarta Chronicles. Sonam adds, “I don’t know which character I will essay, but it’s Indian mythology, which is spectacular and has a lot of potential.”

Apart from these two, the actress has also officially signed the on-screen adaptation of Anuja’s other novel, The Zoya Factor.

The rights have been acquired by Adlabs and Abhishek Sharma will direct the film. Sonam confirms the news but refuses to divulge more details. “Yes, there’s Zoya Factor, too, but I can’t talk about it,” she states.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 23, 2017)

Krishna Udayasankar, the Singapore-based Indian author of the bestselling Aryavarta Chronicles series (Govinda, Kauravaand, Kurukshetra), a modern-retelling of the Mahabharata, has just sold the rights of her 2016 novel, Immortal, to Phantom Films. It will be adapted for screen as a trilogy on Ashwatthama, the legendary warrior who is cursed with immortality by Krishna, in a contemporary setting. Suffering insurmountable pain, he has been roaming the earth for a millennium in search for mortality as a result of which the story also spans 4000 years.

A blend of history, myth and fantasy, Immortal narrates the story of a historian-for-hire Professor Bharadvaj who is reluctantly pulled into a hunt for the ‘vajra’, a historical artifact which is believed to possess incredible alchemical power. The academician has spent many lifetimes in different identities searching for it in an effort to find a way out of his unending existence. The adventure takes him through the secret passages beneath the Somnath Temple to the home of the siddhas in the Nilgiris to the deserts of Pakistan.

The film is on the lines of a ‘quest genre’, a historical as well as an action-adventure that will take the flawed hero on a trail across the sub-continent, much like Indiana Jones. Phantom’s Madhu Mantena confirms the news. “Yes, the film is a trilogy on Ashwathama in a modern-context. It’s a very powerful story written beautifully by Krishna Udayasankar and a concept that has not been ‘experienced’ on the big screen, that too on such a huge scale. We are very excited to start this journey,” the filmmaker added.