Midnight's Children (film)

Midnight's Children
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 (2012-10)
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, 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]

Cast

• Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai^[2]
• Shriya Saran^[3] as Parvati
• Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child)
• Anupam Kher as Ghani
• Shabana Azmi as Naseem
• Seema Biswas as Mary
• Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie
• Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz
• Soha Ali Khan^[4] as Jamila
• Rahul Bose as Zulfikar
• Siddharth Narayan as Shiva
• Anita Majumdar as Emerald
• Shahana Goswami^[5]as Amina
• Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa^[6]
• Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai^[7]
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh
• Shikha Talsania as Alia
• Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan
• Sarita Choudhury as The Lady
• Vinay Pathak as Hardy
• Ranvir Shorey as Laurel
• Suresh Menon as Field Marshall
• Rajesh Khera

Production

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.

References

1. ^ "Deepa Mehta Plays With Fire Again". Mid-Day. 27 February 2011. http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2011/feb/270211-deepa-mehta-midnights-children-bollywood.htm. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
2. ^ "Deepa finds Midnight’s Children lead". Times of India. 21 August 2010. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-08-21/news-interviews/28306314_1_salman-rushdie-s-midnight-s-children-saleem-sinai-imran-khan. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
3. ^ Kamath, Sudish (4 February 2011). "The Saturday Interview - Here and there". The Hindu. http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article1156013.ece. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
4. ^ "Soha Unplugged". Indian Express. 25 February 2011. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/soha-unplugged/753420/2. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
5. ^ Talukdar, Taniya (21 March 2011). "Shahana Goswami wants to act in a comedy". Daily News and Analysis. http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_shahana-goswami-wants-to-act-in-a-comedy_1522451. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
6. ^ Jha, Subhash (13 March 2011). "Sanyal to play ghost in Midnight's Children". Mid-Day. http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2011/mar/130311-chandan-roy-sanyal-ghost-midnights-children-bollywood.htm. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
7. ^ "Ronit, the bad dad". Hindustan Times. 27 April 2011. http://www.hindustantimes.com/Ronit-the-bad-dad/Article1-690309.aspx. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d} Nolen, Stephanie (15 May 2011). "Mehta at midnight". Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/deepa-mehta-films-rushdies-midnights-children/article2021293/singlepage/#articlecontent. Retrieved 17 May 2011. 
9. ^ Lalwani, Vickey (3 September 2010). "Kangna quits Midnight’s Children". The Times of India. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-09-03/news-interviews/28245613_1_kangna-ranaut-choices-for-other-characters-deepa-mehta. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
10. ^ "No new films for Irrfan Khan!". Hindustan Times. http://www.hindustantimes.com/No-new-films-for-Irrfan-Khan/Article1-679341.aspx. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
11. ^ Jha, Subhash (23 February 2011). "Nandita opts out Midnight’s Children". Times of India. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-23/news-interviews/28625641_1_nandita-das-guest-appearance-deepa-mehta-s-water. Retrieved 9 April 2011. 
12. ^ Rushdie, Salman (2002). Step across this line: collected nonfiction 1992-2002. Random House. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-679-46334-4. 
13. ^ "Stella Looks Beyond Sterotypical India". Deccan Herald. 16 April 2010. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/63787/stella-looks-beyond-stereotypical-india.html. Retrieved 17 May 2011. 

External links

• Midnight's Children at the Internet Movie Database