Books seem to be the flavour of the season! Peepingmoon.com has exclusively learned that Indian diplomat and author Vikas Swarup's much-acclaimed novel, Six Suspects is getting a web adaptation. The 2016 publication, billed as a "Agatha Christie meets Elmore Leonard" murder mystery, is being developed as a web-series by producers Priti Sinha and Namrata Sinha under their banner Reel Life Entertainment.
Sources close to the development have revealed that the work on Six Suspects adaptation has started and will go on floors early next year. Paan Singh Tomar filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia will be directing this show for India's leading OTT platform Disney+Hotstar. The project that marks Dhulia's third collaboration with the streaming giant after Criminal Justice and Out of Love is currently said to be in the casting stage.
One of the most thrilling murder mysteries set in Delhi, Six Suspects revolves around a playboy son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh who's murdered by one of the guests at his own party. They are a glitzy bunch, but among them, the police find six strange, displaced characters with a gun in their possession, each of them with reason to kill him. The show unravels the lives and motives of the suspects belonging from different walks of life, including a corrupt bureaucrat, an American tourist, a stone-age tribesman, and a Bollywood heroine. Inspired by actual events, the series is believed to be insightful peek into the heart and soul of contemporary India.
Six Suspects is Vikas Swarup's second book to get the screen adaptation. His first novel, Q&A was adapted into an International film Slumdog Millionaire that won eight Academy Awards in 2008. Six Suspects was also supposed to be made as a Hollywood film by BBC and Starfield Productions in 2013 but the project never got off the ground. Amitabh Bachchan was reportedly supposed to play a pivotal role in that film.
Tigmanshu Dhulia, we heard, is also working on one more web-series for SonyLIV. The director will apparently finalize the show that he wants to shoot first after the scripting for both the projects are completed.