Mira Nair’s adaptation of Vikram Seth’s best seller A Suitable Boy will have a worldwide release on Netflix on October 23. The web series received favourable to mixed reviews from the UK audience after it was released by BBC a month back. Ahead of the Indian premiere, the stars of the series- Tanya Maniktala, Namit Das, Danesh Razvi and Mikhail Sen spoke to PeepingMoon.com in an exclusive video interview
During the interview, Namit revealed that in a way he was destined to play the role of Haresh Khanna. He said, “It’s a book I have lived with. I finished the book in 2015 and I told my wife that if ever the book is made into a series then there is only one person who can play Haresh Khanna and that’s me. The conversation ended there. However, eight months down the lane I am acting in the musical Monsoon Wedding and Mira and I are having a candid conversation on how only one person can direct A Suitable Boy and me playing the above mentioned role. And eight months pass again and Mira and I are having lunch and she tells me that she is directing the show and I tell her that Haresh Khanna is here. She did not agree immediately but finally just before the shoot, only two casts were left and Mira called me to come for the screen test and that’s how I bagged the role.”
Tanya, Danesh and Mikhail also narrated their interesting stories about how they bagged their roles. Danesh spoke about the hilarious incident where his mom, who was Mira's yoga partner, was insistent on showing his photos to the director to get him the role! Mikhail, on the other hand, revealed that one of his prized cricketing catches got him the role of Amit Chatterji in A Suitable Boy. He also said that he was given the book by his grandparents on his 15th birthday and it was kind of destiny that he bagged the role.
Interestingly, all the three male stars gave their screen test with Tanya who played Lata in the series. The four stars also spoke about how they prepped for the role and whether they read the book before taking up work in the series. They also reiterated the fact that Indian audience and the global audience will get to see the series now on OTT with Netflix’s big release and are confident that the show will be appreciated without any prior bias.
(Transcribed by: Vandana Srivastawa)
