Showing posts with label Roy Kapur Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roy Kapur Films. Show all posts
Roy Kapur Films and WIIP collaborate to adapt historian William Dalrymple's book
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Stephen Frears, director; William Dalrymple, author and consultant; Siddharth Roy Kapur, producer. Pics/AFP, Yogen Shah, X, Instagram
Rajesh Naidu (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; April 24, 2025)
In a first for a big-scale collaboration, global independent studio WIIP (known for producing well-received web series Mare Of Easttown) and Indian production house Roy Kapur Films will be creating a web series adaption of writer-historian William Dalrymple's critically-acclaimed and bestseller book The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise Of The East India Company.
The web series will be produced across the UK and Asia. According to a source, it is estimated that the first season of the web series will cost $100 million, almost similar to the scale of critically-acclaimed big-scale web series such as The Crown and Game Of Thrones.
The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise Of The East India Company tells the story of how the East India Company based in a small London office took over the entire Indian sub-continent which constituted more than one-fourth of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the time.
The web series will be directed by legendary British director Stephen Frears known for films such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
"This is the most contemporary of themes: A ruthless businessman and his corporation seizing power, a group of oligarchs taking over a chunk of the world, asset-stripping, looting, manipulating the stock market, destroying whole economies for their profit. The East India Company stealing India in the 18th century, " said director Stephen Frears.
This will be the first big-scale collaboration of Indian production with an international production house in creating a web series adaptation.
The funding of the series is likely to be done by a global streaming platform. "Stephen’s range as a filmmaker is simply unmatched. He has directed some of the most beloved films of the last four decades. To have him come on board to helm this project is an absolute dream come true, " said producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, founder of Roy Kapur Films.
"Collaborating with our production partners at WIIP has been an incredibly enriching experience. This is a story that demanded scale, depth, and ambition, and I am proud that we have brought an extraordinary team together to bring it to life for a global audience, ” he added.
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Collaborating with British director Stephen Frears to bring William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy to screen, Siddharth Roy Kapur shares his vision for the expansive series that will chronicle East India Company’s rise to power
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; April 25, 2025)
On April 23, Siddharth Roy Kapur announced what may easily be his most ambitious project—the screen adaptation of William Dalrymple’s acclaimed book, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Imagine our surprise when he, during our chat, tells us that mid-day has been instrumental in introducing him to the 2019 book. “I first read about the book in mid-day many years ago, before it got published,” he recalls.
That article led him to contact Dalrymple via his publishers in early 2019. Kapur remembers meeting the historian and author at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. “[When we started talking], what Dalrymple had in mind aligned with what I was trying to explore—the impact of global corporations that function as mini nation states today. Its ripple effects have been felt by everyone because almost every nation has been either a colonizer or colonized.”
The producer adds that after a bit of back-and-forth, Dalrymple came on board, even passing on the unpublished manuscript to him.
That sowed the seeds for the expansive multi-season series, which will have the author serve as the consultant and the Oscar-nominated British director Stephen Frears at the helm. Together, they will tell the story of how the East India Company rose to power in the Indian sub-continent in the late 18th century as the Mughal Empire crumbled. The story demands a large canvas, and Roy Kapur, along with Paul Lee’s studio Wiip—which produced the acclaimed Mare of Easttown (2021)—is determined to give it just that.
“It’s a sprawling piece about a lush world that has the Mughals, Marathas, British, Dutch and how they shaped the country’s tapestry. I call it our Game Of Thrones’ ambition meets The Crown’s telling. There are multiple seasons because we want to stay true to the nuance of his writing,” states Kapur.
When it comes to bringing nuance to screen, Kapur—who has grown up on Frears’ works, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), The Grifters (1990) and The Queen (2006)—knew he’d be the best choice.
“Stephen has the ability to treat characters as whole people, while retaining the story’s scale. It’s the most definitive story of modern history for us. The Anarchy shows India with a curious gaze. Only Stephen can pull this off,” he shares, adding that the casting process will begin in a few months.
Making an ambitious saga is daunting. It only becomes amplified in the current market when more films are failing than succeeding. Does that play on his mind? “It’s always a good time to tell a great story,” Kapur says assuredly.
“From time to time, we feel a creative and monetary vacuum. But that doesn’t mean one doesn’t swing for the fences. Yes, two years of COVID have shrunk our attention span. We’re competing with innumerable avenues, even Instagram Reels. But if you give people something breathtaking, they’ll come in hordes.”
Did you know?
The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise Of The East India Company had featured in Barack Obama’s list of favourite books of 2019. It traces the East India Company’s rise in the Indian sub-continent.
Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur collaborate with Crazy Rich Asians producers for The Sky Is Pink
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Shonali Bose’s Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim-starrer is now going global
MUMBAI MIRROR (December 18, 2018)
Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP and Siddharth Roy Kapur’s Roy Kapur Films have brought in Golden Globe-nominated Ivanhoe Pictures, producers of the recent Hollywood blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians, as a co-producer and co-investing partner for their much anticipated family drama, the tentatively-titled The Sky is Pink.
Ivanhoe Pictures is a Los Angeles, New York and Beijing-based motion picture and television financing and production entity. Ivanhoe develops, produces, and acquires content for a global audience, and now has local-language production deals in India, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Latin America, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The Sky is Pink is written and directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Shonali Bose and is based on the true-life story of the young motivational speaker Aisha Chaudhary and her parents. It marks Priyanka Chopra’s much awaited comeback to Bollywood after her appearance in a leading role in ABC’s Quantico, and she is also a co-producer on the film. Alongside Priyanka, the film features actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar and Dangal and Secret Superstar sensation Zaira Wasim in lead roles. While Zaira plays the role of Aisha, Priyanka and Farhan play her parents in the film.
The film’s music is scored by ace composer Pritam and the lyrics are penned by the legendary Gulzar.
The project is already in production, with shooting schedules in Mumbai, London and New Delhi completed earlier this year. A brief schedule in the Andamans is planned for January, and the film is slated to release mid-2019.
“We have produced a variety of content for the Indian market and it is wonderful to collaborate with such highly regarded partners as RSVP and Roy Kapur Films on this compelling film,” Ivanhoe Pictures President and CEO John Penotti said. “Ronnie and Sid’s understanding of Indian audiences is beyond comparison and I am sure that this is the start of a long association,” he added.
“We are incredibly excited about forging this alliance with Ivanhoe and are looking forward to taking this wonderfully moving and inspiring story to audiences worldwide,” said Ronnie Screwvala.
Siddharth Roy Kapur added, “This is the perfect coming together of complementary strengths. Partnering with Ivanhoe will help us leverage their strong distribution prowess in non-traditional markets for Indian films, while in turn this collaboration strengthens their association with the Indian film industry.”
The Shonali Bose directorial is scheduled to hit cinemas next summer.
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