William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy, which Prime Minister Imran Khan was spotted reading on his way back to Pakistan from the United Nations General Assembly, is being made into a movie.
According to a report in Hollywood publication Variety Magazine, award-winning producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has acquired the rights of the book, whose complete title is The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Roy Kapur, unarguably one of Bollywood’s biggest producers, has a plethora of hits under his belt including Dangal, The Sky is Pink, Khoobsurat and Kai Po Che!.
Set between 1599 and 1802, The Anarchy traces the rise of The East India Company against the decline and fall of the Mughal Empire. It provides an account of how a provincial trading start-up, run by thirty people from an office in a nondescript London building, became rulers of an entire sub-continent.
While further details on the film are still under wraps, Roy Kapur Films is reportedly planning a big-budget, grand-scale series adaptation of the book with yet unnamed international co-production partners.
Dalrymple, who is also on board as a consultant for the project, while speaking about the adaption said: “I’m very excited looking at the initial treatment note, talking about the various ways to bring this book alive and to bring the characters I’ve been living with over the last 6 years onto the screen, so that everyone else can see them in flesh and blood.”
Apart from PM Khan The Anarchy was also recommended by former US President Barack Obama, who listed it among his top 10 recommended books of 2019.
