‘Omkara’ Director Vishal Bhardwaj To Adapt Author Agatha Christie’s Works As Film Franchise

Drawing inspiration from Agatha Christie’s timeless mysteries, the first film will introduce a young heroine who is thrown into solving a murder. Read more to find out more details.

Image courtesy - Vishal Bhardwaj (@vishalrbhardwaj/Instagram)

New Delhi: Critically acclaimed filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj is popularly known for his Indian adaptations of Willian Shakespeare’s tragedies – ‘Maqbool’ from ‘Macbeth’, ‘Omkara’ from ‘Othello’ and ‘Haider’ from ‘Hamlet’. The ‘Kaminey’ director has now partnered with Agatha Christie Limited to develop the big screen adaptations for the Indian audience. Drawing inspiration from Agatha Christie’s timeless mysteries, the first film will introduce a young heroine who is thrown into solving a murder. It will witness the heroine teaming up with an unlikely companion to unravel the case. The future films will follow the duo and witness them solving multiple murder cases. The script is currently under development and there has been no revelation yet on which books of Christie will be adapted. The ‘7 Khoon Maaf’ director is excited to dive into the project as he shares, “Agatha Christie had a tremendous skill of defining emotional chaos, dysfunctional relationships and the turmoil in her characters while engaging us in a riveting mystery. It is an honour to create an Indian franchise of a pair of young investigators looking to take over the world with their intelligence and charm. ACL have been such amazing partners and we are all excited to be on this journey.” Speaking on the collaboration, James Prichard, great grandson of Agatha Christie, and Chairman and CEO of Agatha Christie Limited, said, “I'm truly excited at the prospect of developing a new Agatha Christie film franchise in India, and am delighted to be partnering with Vishal, who is a multitalented and visionary filmmaker with a terrific track record for adapting works to create memorable pieces of cinema. He has also demonstrated a real passion and understanding of my great grandmother's characters and stories and I very much look forward to seeing where this project takes us.” The shooting for first film of the franchise is scheduled to start from early 2021 with Basi Akpabio and Leo Dezoysa serving as executive producers for Agatha Christie Limited on the new films. Watch this space for more updates. (With inputs from IANS).