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The BBC and Working Title are teaming up to adapt E.M. Forster’s classic novel A Passage to India into a five-part television series. The project was announced by Working Title executive Surian Fletcher-Jones. Producer Nisha Parti is also attached, with her company Parti Productions joining as a co-production partner.
The adaptation is being developed in collaboration with Canadian filmmaker and writer Richie Mehta. Marking the novel’s centenary, the new series will revisit Forster’s powerful exploration of colonial tensions and cultural divides during the British Raj in the 1920s.
A Passage to India was last adapted for the screen in 1984 by director David Lean, in a film that starred Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, James Fox, Alec Guinness, Nigel Havers, and Victor Banerjee.
Surian Fletcher-Jones described the new adaptation as an opportunity to “reclaim colonial history” and “turn the novel on its head.” Reflecting on a recent trip to India, she added that the experience “felt like a homecoming for me.”
Here is the goodreads synopsis of "A Passage to India" by E. M. Forster:
When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterful portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world.
In his introduction, Pankaj Mishra outlines Forster's complex engagement with Indian society and culture. This edition reproduces the Abinger text and notes, and also includes four of Forster's essays on India, a chronology and further reading.
Source: Deadline
The adaptation is being developed in collaboration with Canadian filmmaker and writer Richie Mehta. Marking the novel’s centenary, the new series will revisit Forster’s powerful exploration of colonial tensions and cultural divides during the British Raj in the 1920s.
A Passage to India was last adapted for the screen in 1984 by director David Lean, in a film that starred Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, James Fox, Alec Guinness, Nigel Havers, and Victor Banerjee.
Surian Fletcher-Jones described the new adaptation as an opportunity to “reclaim colonial history” and “turn the novel on its head.” Reflecting on a recent trip to India, she added that the experience “felt like a homecoming for me.”
Here is the goodreads synopsis of "A Passage to India" by E. M. Forster:
When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterful portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world.
In his introduction, Pankaj Mishra outlines Forster's complex engagement with Indian society and culture. This edition reproduces the Abinger text and notes, and also includes four of Forster's essays on India, a chronology and further reading.
Source: Deadline
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