In A First, Vishal Bharadwaj To Adapt Agatha Christie’s Works; Film To Go On Floors In 2021

Mumbai: Indian filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming film will be based on a novel by English detective novelist and playwright Agatha Christie.

He is currently working on the script of the crime thriller which he hopes to finish in two months and begin filming early next year, BBC reported.

The 55-year-old filmmaker had earlier directed three modern-day adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays – Maqbool (Macbeth), Omkara (Othello), and Haider (Hamlet).

“I felt very honoured, very fortunate, that I have worked with Shakespeare’s works and now I will have a chance to work on an Agatha Christie project… So many movies have been made on Agatha’s stories all over the world. And many of her stories are already taken. Recently, the British director Kenneth Branagh, the one who made ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ and ‘Death On The Nile’ – he has acquired the rights for all Hercule Poirot stories, for instance,” he had told the TOI in an interview earlier.

It is also the first time that Agatha Christie Limited, which looks after the author’s estate, has franchised her stories to an Indian filmmaker. “We have done many adaptations across the world and every country brings its own flavour to the piece. I have no doubt that this will be the same,” James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and the CEO of the estate, was quoted as saying by BBC.

According to Variety, the film will introduce a young heroine who is thrown into solving a murder, and teams up with an unlikely companion to solve the case.

However, details of which Christie novel is being adapted have not been revealed yet. The cast is currently being finalised, the report added.