India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
Of Amitav Ghosh, Bollywood and opium
I wish someone would make a movie on the “Sea of Poppies.”
Amitav Ghosh’s latest novel has all the right ingredients for a film set in 19th century India — runaway lovers, a bankrupt Raja, anti-British sentiment, a white woman masquerading as an Indian peasant and a huge ship sailing down the Ganges.
But Ghosh is unconvinced.
“It’ll be very difficult. Will need a lot of special effects,” says the 52-year-old writer.
Ghosh just smiles. The silver-haired author, one of India’s best known novelists writing in English, is more affable than I had imagined.
There had been offers from Bollywood for two of his books — “The Hungry Tide” (2004) and “The Calcutta Chromosome” (1995) — but the projects fizzled out.
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The Wall
