Vipul Amrutlal Shah buys rights to 21 Gujarati novels of writer Harkisan Mehta

Before the release of his next film, Namaste England (2018), filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shah is already mapping out the production schedule for his banner, Sunshine Pictures Pvt Ltd. The producer-director has bought the rights to 21 novels by the prolific Gujarati writer, Harkisan Mehta.

Mehta was the editor of the weekly magazine Chitralekha until his death in 1998, and his writings were often inspired by real-life events. The daily tabloid Mumbai Mirror reported that Mehta’s novels, from Jagga Dakuna Verna Valamana, Amirali Thugna Pila Roomalni Ganth, Chambal Taaro Ajampo and Maanas Name Gunegar, were up for adaptation first.

“The first film will take off from one of the three books that I’ve shortlisted from the library. Two of them are true stories based on a dacoit and a thug who operated in Kutch and Rajasthan, respectively, and the third story is loosely inspired by the Aruna Shanbaug case. These three are my personal favourites,” the director said.

Shah also plans on adapting another story, that of a ghost solving the mystery of its own murder. The filmmaker worked with the author’s son Tushar to get a hold of the novel’s rights, he told Mumbai Mirror, adding that he has one more story — of a ghost solving its own murder mystery — in mind.

“It’s gracious of the family to allow me access to the entire library. It was made possible by Tushar bhai and his sister, who are now managing Harkisan bhai Mehta's legacy. He is the biggest writer that Indian commercial literature has seen. He’s like the Jeffrey Archer or Dan Brown of Gujarati literature. I have grown up reading his books and had wanted to work with them for the longest time,” Shah stated.

Shah’s latest film, Namaste England (2018), starring Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra will be out in theatres on Dusshera, 18 October.