When Bilal Siddiqi started writing his first book, The Bard of Blood , his mentor — crime writer S Hussain Zaidi — told him to make each scene as cinematic as possible. A couple of years on, that piece of advice seems to have helped: the novel will be brought to life as a Netflix original series, produced in partnership with Shah Rukh Khan’s production house, Red Chillies Entertainment.
From a young age, Siddiqi was interested in thrillers and books on crime. “I remember reading The Godfather when I was 13; not sure if that was age appropriate,” he laughs. Although he never intended for the book to be made into a web-series, he credits his colleagues at Red Chillies (where he works in the marketing department) for the transformation. “We worked on it for six to eight months, getting inputs even from Shah Rukh. He suggested characters that could be brought in or dropped for the screen version. We then pitched the idea to Netflix. They liked it, and so here we are,” he says.
The spy thriller will be made into a multilingual eight-episode show, and the writer’s room (the team that rewrites scripts) is currently being put together. Siddiqi says he will be involved in writing the screenplay, but will leave the casting decisions to the pros. “The thing is, I have this image of Kabir Anand (the protagonist) in my mind, and he doesn’t look like any actor I’ve seen. My focus will be on creating a proper storyline and dialogues,” he says.
This is not the first time Netflix has turned to a book from the sub-continent for inspiration. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (starring Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte) was the first original series picked from India; coincidentally, that too was a crime thriller.
Amazon Prime might have beat them to the punch with content for India — with several stand-up comic specials and the Vivek Oberoi-starrer, Inside Edge coming out earlier this year — but the American streaming giant is attempting to catch up. In August, they announced two new series: Selection Day , based on the book by Aravind Adiga, and Again , a supernatural, female-led detective series written by Marisha Mukerjee, and set in New Delhi. Then there’s the animated Mighty Little Bheem , scheduled for a 2018 release and targeted towards a pre-school audience.
As for The Bard of Blood , Siddiqi informs us that the show will premiere late next year, as there is plenty of work to be done. “Putting the script, director and actors together is expected to take around six months or more. After which we have to create a show that’s worthy of an international audience,” he concludes.
