Movies Adapted From Popular Books Authored By Indian Writers
Movies Adapted from Popular Books Authored By Indian Writers
If you get the option to choose a book or a movie based on the same book, what will you choose? You will choose to watch a movie. But another side a book lover will choose a book over a movie. Some of the films based on the books of Indian authors emerged as award-winning movies of Indian Cinema.
Today I am sharing a list of books that were later made into movies by Indian filmmakers in different languages.
Balika Badhu (1976)
It is a novel written in Bengali by award-winning writer Bimal Kar. The story is on child marriage that was very usual in India in the early ’90s. The story revolves around two characters who tied the knot as teenagers. They tried to understand marriage and its responsibilities. In the story, the writer explained the hurdles and social challenges faced by the youngster.Based on this book, a movie directed by Shakti Samanta and lead role played by Sachin and Rajni Sharma was released. The movie got nominations for Filmfare awards in different categories. It also bagged a few.
Devdas (2002)
This is one bookthat created history. It got published in several versions. An iconic novel Devdas was written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and released in 1917. It is the story of Dev and Paro, who were in love with each other since childhood. But, destiny separated them. The entire story narrates the challenges faced by Dev and Paro and displays their true love. Tears will surely come in your eyes experiencing the pain of Dev. After reading this book twice, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali decided to make the movie on Devdas. The movie got released in 2002. In the movie Shahrukh Khan (Dev), Aishwarya Rai (Paro), and Madhuri Dixit (Chandramukhi) played the lead roles. The screenplay won the hearts of audiences and bagged five national awards, the Filmfare award as the best film, and followed by other 10 Filmfare awards in several categories. But to be noted, that before Sanjay Leela Bansali, this movie in the Bengali language got released in 1936. Bengali version directed by Pramathesh Barua, and he himself played the role of Devdas.
Choker Bali(2003)
A renowned Bengali novel written by Rabindranath Tagore. The story of a widow Binodini narrates the discrimination, widows used to face at that time. It depicted what happens when a widow gets attracted toward another person Mahendra and many more things. The problem started increasing when the fact came into the limelight that married Mahendra also experienced equal attraction towards Binodini. One of the finest directors of Indian Cinema Late Rituparno Ghosh decided to make a film on this book in Bengali. Aishwarya Rai (Binodini), and Raima Sen( Mahendra’s wife) played the lead roles in the movie. Veteran Actor Prasanjit Chattopadhay played the character of Mahendra. The movie bagged theNational Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali, the National film award for best costume design, and the National film award for best art direction. The film received nominations in various international film awards.
Saraswatichandra(1968)
The Gujarati Novel, Sarswatichandra talks about feudalism in India. The novel was penned by Govardhanram Madhavaram Tripathi, one of the celebrated authors of the 2Oth century from Gujrat. It was released in 4 parts and later adapted as a films, TV series, Radio Plays, and Plays. The book got translated into multiple languages. In 1968, Saraswatichandra Hindi version, a black and white film got released and directed by Govind Saraiya. The lead casts were Nutan and Manish. Sanjay Leela Bansali later adapted it into a TV series in 2014. The lead star casts here were Jennifer Winget and Gautam Rode.
Pinjar (2003)
It is a Punjabi novel written by Amrita Pritam. It’s an emotional love story during the period of partition. The book depicted the love story with a mix of Hindu-Muslim violence. While reading the book, you will experience during that time how women used to get kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and forced into marriage. The central character of the story a woman who got married forcefully. She found her in a whole new world after the partition. The story got adapted into a period-drama film by director Chandraprakash Dwivedi 2003. It witnessed massive success, and the lead star cast was Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpayee, and Sanjay Suri. The film was screened both in Hindi and Punjabi language.
Stay tuned will share many more books that got adapted as Indian films.
This post is a part of Book Marathon 2022 by https://outsetbooks.com
usually, movie adaptations kill the charm of reading. But some directors adapt the book very precisely like Devdaas and Choker bali. i loved these two movies.
You always have a beautiful approach to think outside the bos di…I really enjoy reading you and this time you just made me feel that God I am not in this world…this post is going to rock as for the first time so much detailed on such an interesting topic someone wrote. I have watched and read all of these but pinjar is new to me. So will give it a try this year for sure. ????
Some of the best movies have been adapted from books. Though all these are good my personal favorite is devdas. I’ve been looking for the English version of Choker Bali too. Thank you for the recommendation.
This is one more informative post.Throught i knew about all of the books except one. Its really interesting to go through the movie. But I think, sometime, the novels are perfect in written form.
Of this list, I’ve seen 2 movies, Devdas and Pinjar and both are wonderful movies. Pinjar specially moved me to the see the situation that women had to go thru during partition.
Great review! I’m not into Indian movies not books but one thing’s for sure and I can attest to is that reading the book where the movie was adapted from can capture ones imagination more than simply watching it through movies. Your imagination can bring you much more else where! Lovely sharing, will be looking into them=)
I didn’t knew Balika vadhu and pinjar were novel based movies… i have watched three of these.
And tbh these movies were top one…
I have seen all except Saraswatichandra and Pinjar. Adapting a book written by successful writers into a movie format needs courage. But Indian cinema has done that pretty well.
These movies were the best of all time. Devdas is my favourite. I loved SRK acting in the movie.
Books have surely been an inspiration for many movies. I have watched a few of these and they were classics I would say.
These are all classic books which in turn have also achieved classical status as movies. Especially the likes of Saraswati Chandra and Devdas. The latter of course has had so many versions including contemporary ones.
Books and movies are two different languages, and translation attempts frequently fail. Balika badhu is one of my favourites, I have not watched Saraswati Chandra yet.
It seems that Bengali culture has inspired the bollywood to great extent! It also feels so great that books are so overwhelming and it gives path to many form of story telling.
I don’t know somehow until now. I. Haven’t seen a movie that has done justice to the book that it’s adapted from. Maybe the book lover in me is stopping me Or movies have not come up to expectations
I didn’t know about Balika vadhu. Wow. It is a moment of pride for us, as writers to see the books adapted into silver screen
These are some legendary books adapted to some lengendary movies. Proud to see the amount of talent in our country.
Wow, I was not aware of this fact . I only knew about Devdas . These are some of the legendary books I must say .