You’ve done the impossible - sold your book/series for the screen. Who would you choose (living or dead) to play your protagonist? Why?
By Abir
Great question!
This is the dream of many a novelist, at least when they’re starting out, that their story will make it to the big (or increasingly the small) screen. The best part of that is what we call the game of fantasy casting, and I’ve been prone to a bit of that myself.
Now my Wyndham and Banerjee novels have three central characters: Captain Sam Wyndham, an ex-Scotland Yard detective who finds himself in India, working for the Imperial Police, mainly because it’s slightly preferable to suicide; Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee (known as Surrender-not by his British colleagues who can’t or won’t pronounce his name properly); and Annie Grant, an Anglo-Indian woman with whom Sam has a rather complicated romantic relationship.
In terms of casting, I’m going to come at them in reverse order, starting with Annie Grant, because that’s the easy one.
Annie Grant was inspired by the Hollywood actress Ava Gardner, particularly in her role as Victoria Jones in the film Bhowani Junction, based on the book of the same name by John Masters. Victoria is an Anglo-Indian woman, serving with the British Army towards the end of empire, unsure of her place in the racially divided world of British India. I remember watching the film and being captivated by Ava Gardner’s performance and when I came to writing A Rising Man, the first in the series, it was Gardner whom I pictured in my head as Annie, so much so that I gave Annie Grant her initials. So in an ideal world, I’d have Ms Gardner play the character who was based upon her.
Here's the Trailer for Bhowani Junction:
However, in the here and now, which actor would I wish to play Annie? That’s a tougher question. Like Ava Gardner, she would have to have that olive complexion – neither Indian or white – someone who could pass for either. In my head, I picture someone like Gal Gadot. But I heard her singing this during lockdown, and it’s put me off her a bit.
In terms of others, there’s the Indian actor, Swastika Mukherjee, who’s starred in a range of Indian films, including the femme fatale in one of my favourites Detective Byomkesh Bakshy.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3054665/
Let’s move on to Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee. That’s also quite easy, because the actor Kunal Nayyar, who played Raj in the Big Bang Theory has expressed an interest in the role, and when we came to write the pilot script, we reimagined much of it from Banerjee’s perspective, increasing the weight of the role.
If Kunal happens to be busy, then I’d go for Dev Patel or a young actor called Mikhail Sen, who provides Suren’s voice in the audiobook for the fifth in the series, The Shadows of Men. Mikhail also played Amit Chatterjee in the recent BBC adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1938354/
Then of course, there is my wife’s favourite, Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays the deceased father in the Netflix series, Never Have I Ever. I personally think he’s far too handsome and that my wife should be banned from the whole casting process.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0707983/
And then, finally, we come to Captain Sam Wyndham himself. This is a tough one, mainly because I don’t know what Sam actually looks like. Maybe this is because when I’m writing, I tend to see the world through his eyes and don’t really look at him. You’ll be surprised at just how many authors have a similar blind spot for their main character. The truth is, my vision of Sam is less important than the reader’s vision of him. At the end of the day, that is what matters.
My old art teacher, Mr Wilson was kind enough to paint me a picture of what he imagined Sam looked like. It’s different from how I imagine him (even though I can’t picture him precisely), but then again, my wife’s view of him is different to mine too.
In terms of actors though, my list would include men like David Tennant and Daniel Craig, but really, I’m open to other opinions here. If you have a good one (for any of the characters) drop it in the comments below.
Cheers
Abir
If he could do a Scottish accent - which he could not do if his career depended on it - I'd suggest Owen Wilson as Sam. He plays not-entirely-clueless characters who tend to blunder into the right decisions with very little self-knowledge but decent hearts and some instinctive sense of what's right and not.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the links. Some actors for me to check out.