Salman Rushdie
It has emerged that the film adaptation of Salman Rushdie''s 1981 novel 'Midnight''s Children', which was being secretly filmed in Sri Lanka, has completed shooting.
India-born Canadian director Deepa Mehta said she chose the island instead of India or Pakistan, where the story is set, to avoid problems with religious fundamentalists.
While Mehta's film 'Earth' had provoked the Hindus in India, Rushdie was the target of a fatwa from Iran for his novel 'The Satanic Verses'.
In 1997, the government of Sri Lanka had blocked the BBC to film the adaptation of the novel in Sri Lanka after Iran complained to Sri Lanka, but President Mahinda Rajapaksa had reversed the ban. Therefore, the production, cast and crewmembers were made to sign confidentiality agreement to avoid protests.
"We really wanted to do this film, and the price was silence," the BBC quoted Mehta as telling Canada''s Globe and Mail newspaper. "He [Rushdie] has got the Muslims. And I''ve got the Hindus," she added.
The film will be released next year as 'Winds of Change'.
India-born Canadian director Deepa Mehta said she chose the island instead of India or Pakistan, where the story is set, to avoid problems with religious fundamentalists.
While Mehta's film 'Earth' had provoked the Hindus in India, Rushdie was the target of a fatwa from Iran for his novel 'The Satanic Verses'.
In 1997, the government of Sri Lanka had blocked the BBC to film the adaptation of the novel in Sri Lanka after Iran complained to Sri Lanka, but President Mahinda Rajapaksa had reversed the ban. Therefore, the production, cast and crewmembers were made to sign confidentiality agreement to avoid protests.
"We really wanted to do this film, and the price was silence," the BBC quoted Mehta as telling Canada''s Globe and Mail newspaper. "He [Rushdie] has got the Muslims. And I''ve got the Hindus," she added.
The film will be released next year as 'Winds of Change'.
