San Leandro, Calif. — Anjan Sundaram was just 22 when he completed a master’s degree in mathematics from Yale and was headed to a job with Goldman Sachs. But the young Indian American man decided to travel solo to the Congo to work as a journalist, with no training or experience. While in one of the world’s most downtrodden and impoverished countries, working for 15 cents a word, Sundaram was struck with malaria and robbed at gunpoint, among many other indignities.
The book he wrote about his experiences, “Stringer: A Reporter’s Year in the Congo,” was published in February to rave reviews from National Public Radio, The Guardian and many other media. Time Out Mumbai calls it “a fascinating, breathtaking work of reporting and introspection from a writer whose next work will be eagerly awaited”; and the Daily Beast calls it “a remarkable debut, an eye-opening account of life in the Third World that doubles as a fascinating story of a novice reporter earning his stripes in the most inhospitable environment imaginable.”
Now, actor Manish Dayal, who burst onto the scene with a starring role opposite Helen Mirren and Om Puri in “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” has optioned the book and plans to make it into a movie.
Dayal is working with Laura Hersh and Dan Spilo of Industry Entertainment on the deal; the trio will produce the film and find a writer and director.
“Manish has been most passionate about my book, and I’m thrilled that it's with him. He will soon begin a search for a screenwriter to adapt the book,” Sundaram told India-West in an e-mail. He says he expects that Dayal’s team will want to consult with him on aspects of the story.
Now that western Africa is in the news because of the Ebola crisis, good-quality reportage is more important than ever before, he said. “Coverage of the Ebola crisis has improved, as more reporters have been deployed to cover the story,” he told India-West.
“Africa is still vastly under-reported, however. Some of the great events of our time, including in Congo, are largely forgotten. Stringers can help us expose us to an Africa whose past and present is beautiful and rich.”
Dayal is represented by UTA, Industry Entertainment and Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman, said a spokesperson for the actor Oct. 1.
The Indian American actor has had recurring roles on the CW’s “90210” and ABC Family’s “Switched at Birth,” and AMC’s “Rubicon,” and has appeared on “The Good Wife,” “Outsourced,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” among many other shows. Dayal has also had roles in NRI-produced feature films such as “Karma Calling” and “When Kiran Met Karan,” and even a small role as a news reporter in the Bollywood film “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.”
The actor was born and brought up in South Carolina, in a large family originally from a small town outside Surat, Gujarat. “I started out wanting to be a producer or director, and one day as a favor to a friend I went in front of the camera,” Dayal told India-West in an interview earlier this year, so this news seems to be a step in the right direction.