HBO Adapting Rohinton Mistry Novel ‘A Fine Balance’ Into a TV Series (EXCLUSIVE)

Manori Ravindran
·2 min read
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HBO is developing a long-awaited adaptation of Rohinton Mistry’s critically acclaimed, award-winning novel “A Fine Balance,” Variety can reveal.

The seven-part series is being produced by “A Very British Scandal” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” producer Blueprint Pictures and “Anne With an E” outfit Northwood Entertainment. Ritesh Batra, who directed the late Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur in “The Lunchbox,” is attached to both write and direct.

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The show would look to shoot in India from early June through November.

First published by Canada’s McLelland and Stewart in 1995, “A Fine Balance” went on to win the 1995 Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize.

The story — which centers on a rich widow, two tailors and a young student from vastly different parts of Indian society whose lives intersect in a tiny apartment — traverses the political landscape in India from the country’s independence in 1947 through to the 21-month state of emergency called by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi between 1975 and 1977.

Since its publication, the book has earned a reputation as one of the foremost novels about India post-Independence. It was selected by Oprah’s Book Club — which was, at the time in 2001, a rare feat for a Canadian novel — and also won the 1996 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book Overall.

The story was adapted for the stage by the U.K.’s Tamasha Theatre Company in 2006 and 2007, and the BBC recently dramatized the book for a radio play that was released in 2021.

Exploratory casting for the series has already begun in the U.K. by Robert Sterne, who handled casting on shows such as “Game of Thrones” and “The Crown.”

Canadian author Mistry’s novel “Such a Long Journey” was also adapted for the screen, with the 1998 movie starring veteran British-Indian actor Roshan Seth.

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