Whenever a book is adapted for the big screen, a debate slides in. Could the film do justice to the book? It is disappointing to see compromises being made to the author’s voice. And it pinches a bit more if the book happens to be one of your favourites. Whether one likes it or not, a number of books across the world continue to be adapted for the silver screen.
The plus point is that if you don’t get enough time to exhaust the pile of critically-acclaimed books on your bedside table, you have a movie to fall back on. Perhaps sensing this need, Zee Entertainment has come up with unique movie screenings on their premier channel &PriveHD. The screenings, which began from July 22, will showcase critically-acclaimed cinema under its banner, The Bookmarked Collection, at 9.00pm every day.
“Books are a great source for compelling content. We started off with bringing the book adaptations on the channel with the insight that the cinematic interpretation of a story leaves a lasting impact on our minds,” says a Zee spokesperson, adding, “There are some books that we often go back to and get a new perspective each time, the same is true for movies. Bringing book adaptations to our viewers is aimed at growing consumption of fiction and also to build interest in varied storytelling.”
The curated edition will feature many critically-acclaimed movies like Hugo, Moneyball, Pursuit of Happyness, The Godfather, Mandela, Call Me By Your Name and The Imitation Game among others. Adaptation, when it hits the right notes, is commendable. It is fascinating to come across those characters on the big screen which till now were locked up in our imagination.
And adaptation is on the rise these days. Kanishka Gupta, a Delhi-based literary agent finds this phenomenon a great motivator for the authors. He says, “It is a very good source of income for authors as they hardly make any money out of their books, though a lot of books, even after being acquired by studios, never translate into movies. But even this is a good thing because a certain part of the acquisition fee is non-refundable.
At times, the authors are also offered a certain percentage of the profit from TV shows or movies. Also, they often make additional money by being a creative consultant to their respective shows. But as every second book is getting acquired, my only worry is when are production houses going to find time to conceptualise these books into films?”