After writing the screenplay for A Mouthful of Sky in 1995, author Ashok Banker is back on small screen with Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat on Colors. The author, who's upcoming book Ashoka is being adapted for this TV show, tells SANGEETA YADAV why he decided to sell the rights of Ashoka for a TV show rather than make a movie
Your book, Ashoka is getting adapted into a TV show. Why are you not writing the screenplay and dialogues for the showIJ
I have other commitments. The show is based on my story but producer Abhimanyu Singh is overseeing every aspect. This is his show more than mine. Be it Jhansi Ki Rani, Veer Shivaji or Maharana Pratap, he has retold historical drama quite successfully.
How much of the show follows your bookIJ
The serial’s focus is on one particular part of the story and a key relationship. The book encompasses the entire epic historical saga. The show will have all the thrills, excitement, adventure and action of the historical story — battles and clashes galore — but with drama in the forefront. It’s the biggest show ever attempted on Indian television.
Ashok was known for the violent and bloody battle of Kalinga, how are you going to deal with itIJ
Most people only associate Ashok with Kalinga. He was almost at the end of his reign and life when he fought that battle. My story is about his life from birth through his growing years and struggle to become a king and how he maintained that position thereafter. Kalinga comes only at the very end by which time you understand why this man felt he had to fight that particular battle in that brutal way. My goal is to let the reader understand the person behind the myth intimately. Once we understand a person, there’s no controversy. Just a human being who did what he or she did for certain reasons.
Do you think that the book will outlive the showIJ
Definitely. The book lives forever. It’s in depth and much more true to the historical legend and authentic research. TV shows and films get remade endlessly because they have a very short shelf life.
Will the audience want to read the book after watching the serialIJ
The same audienceIJ Probably not. Unlike the west, TV audiences are mainly watching TV because they don’t want to read. The book has its own readership and looking at the dwindling TV viewership in India right now, I’m sure that 2.1 million readers of my books might even skip the serial and read the book. Which is fine with me.
You decide to sell the rights for a show and not a film. WhyIJ
Before the TV rights were sold, I was talking with director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehraa with whom I’ve written his next film titled Raja. He said ‘you should make Ashoka for the big screen. It’s an epic meant for the biggest screen, not for television’. I agreed. But to make a film on Ashok will cost over `500 crore to make it properly and India doesn’t believe in script driven films. I compromised and let the TV show happen.
Is the show and the book coming out at the same timeIJ
Books take a much longer time to edit and publish. A book is for posterity. Ashoka, the novel, will be out some months after the TV show airs and has its own space.
Projects pass through multiple directors, screenwriters, problems, changes etc. How will you deal with itIJ
Television serial is a collective compromise. That’s the way it is in India. Someday perhaps, we will adopt the limited fiction series approach that has produced such amazing TV content abroad like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy. There, they have a single showrunner who is always the writer and creator of the show and makes sure the storytelling stays true to a single clear vision. Here, we rely on producers and channels to collectively decide creative aspects. I accepted that when I sold the rights.
Your association with TV dates back to 1995. Where does TV stands nowIJ
TV in India is dying. The future is visual storytelling and TV has dropped the ball by not maturing and giving true creators the space to tell great stories. There’s a desperate attempt now to infuse vision and thought leadership but it’s too little too late.
What is the future of Indian TVIJ
Whether an adaptation or an original screenplay, TV shows should have a single creative vision followed through. That’s a true telenovella and its time has come. Right now, it’s only directors like Anurag Kashyap for Yudh or Ashutosh Gowarikar for Everest or actors like Anil Kapoor for 24, are implementing their vision, but India will soon wake up to the importance of the writer’s vision being implemented to produce truly pathbreaking memorable TV experiences. Also, I believe the web space is where we will see true breakthroughs from India happening in the next decade. That’s where I intend to work and develop my own content.
Why is there no Indian TV show in EnglishIJ
We’ve abdicated the throne of English language entertainment to Hollywood, letting the Americans and Brits invade us without protest. It’s our own national insecurity showing. If we had the guts, we would be making some of the best shows and films in English and Americans and Brits would be watching our English language content in their countries today. English is my mother tongue as my mother was Anglo-Indian and I come from a British-Indian family. I’m happy to see English language entertainment become so popular in India but as an Indian, I feel sad that we couldn’t be the ones writing, directing, performing and producing that entertainment.