I’m finally playing godfather

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Life has been particularly dramatic for this bad boy of the literary world. He has had his share of awards and honours but most importantly he has survived a fatwa; a flop first (Grimus); scathing criticism, especially for The Satanic Verses and his recently out memoir Joseph Anton; four marriages and the ever-growing distance from his homeland.

Now a New York resident, Salman Rushdie, who was in India to promote Deepa Mehta’s much-talked about film Midnight’s Children based on his more than three decades old iconic work by the same name, seems to be at peace with himself. But India continues to baffle him.

Q: Last year your visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival in January had to be scrapped amid speculation that assassins had been hired to kill you. But two months later you visited India for a conclave. Did you face resistance this time around as well?

A: See I am here and I’ve been coming to India at least once a year for the past decade, sometimes twice or thrice a year, without any issue. In fact I had been to the Jaipur fest a couple of years back without any trouble. What happened last year was unpleasant and very much an exception.

Q: Why did it take so long for any of your books to be adapted into a film?

A: It’s a mystery to me. This one took 30 years to be picked up. I am surprised seeing my friends’ books being lapped up the moment they hit the shelves.
My books are not the kinds that attract Hollywood studios. These books are made into films only when the filmmaker is passionate about the subject.

Q: How did Deepa convince you to give her the film rights of Midnight’s Children?
A: I have always admired Deepa’s work and I saw that Deepa was deeply moved by the book. She had a passionate connection with the work, which is more important than anything else. So we decided to work together on this. In the end I realised it was worth the wait.

Q: Since you have written the screenplay for the film, how difficult was it to condense a 600-page novel into a 2 hours-15 minutes film?

A: It started off ridiculously long and took me nearly two years to develop the screenplay. It was definitely Herculean as I had to find a movie in those pages. If the story is too long, people stop feeling for anything. If you overcrowd the narration, it loses effect. So I had to be very careful about what all to include.

Q: What did your friends say after watching the film?

A: Among others, I am particularly excited about Anita Desai’s reaction to the film. The first review of Midnight’s Children that appeared anywhere was of Anita Desai’s for The Washington Post. I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, Anita liked the book. Maybe it’s good.’ So I obviously wanted her to watch the film. She is a person of few words and a tough critic. She said she was deeply moved by the film. She even said that it should be a sacred film in India.

Q: You have written the screenplay and have narrated Salim’s part for Midnight’s Children, do we see you directing a film in future?

A: I don’t know about direction but I am excited to play a Sikh gangster in Deepa’s Biba Mundey. She wrote the screenplay and I loved it. It’s going to be a story of Indian gangsters in Canada. I am finally playing godfather in a film.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: I am presently busy developing a TV series. However, all I wish to do right now is to go back to my study, shut the door and write a book. It’s been long since my last adult novel came out. So my real instinct is to write a novel.