Author Lakshmi Puri's acclaimed novel Swallowing The Sun (2024) will be adapted into a web series by Abundantia Entertainment, the company's CEO Vikram Malhotra announced on Monday.
Lakshmi’s novel follows Malati as she grows from a village girl into an educated woman who gets caught up in India's struggle for Independence, ultimately facing love, loss, and compromise while defying patriarchal traditions, according to its official logline.
Vikram said the story, while Indian in its detailing, is global in its appeal.
"One of Abundantia's objectives is taking unique Indian storytelling voices and connecting them to a global audience. In Swallowing The Sun, you see an attempt where imagination has blended with history, where the backdrop of fact is meshed with mesmerising dramatisation and fictionalisation to create a story which not only features an unforgettable hero, but tells a family saga with the backdrop of the birth of a nation," he said at an event.
Lakshmi, a former ambassador and assistant secretary-general of the UN, wrote her debut novel inspired by her parents and culture. She describes it as a family saga which is at its core a coming-of-age story.
"It is indeed the beginning of a new journey, one that will take the words that are in this book onto the screen. It will move from the intimacy of the word to the shared experience of a screen. This book has been within my being for several decades and we are now going to transport it into a new wonderful medium that will take it to all of India and the world," she said.
The writer said when she met Vikram, he had already read the book and seemed keen to adapt it for the screen. "He has respect for the soul of my book. Any writer going into a screen adaptation is always fearful. 'Will the soul of my book be respected or will it disappear?'... I want to affirm that with Abundantia and Vikram I see the ideal partners to carry the message (forward)" she added.
Vikram said the collaboration with Puri, while adapting her work with a certain amount of creative liberty, will help sprinkle more authenticity into the series.
"The best adaptations, when they are converted from book to screen, are the ones that work in conjunction with the original creator," he added.
Vikram and Lakshmi added that the showrunners, directors and actors will soon be confirmed for the series.