Ritesh Batra to write and direct HBO series based on Rohinton Mistry novel A Fine Balance

Ritesh Batra is heading back to the director’s chair for the upcoming adaptation of Rohinton Mistry’s award-winning novel A Fine Balance for HBO.

An exclusive report in the trade magazine Variety revealed that Batra will write and direct the seven-part series. The filmmaker’s last film was Photograph (2019) with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra.

The small-screen adaptation is being produced by Blueprint Pictures and Northwood Entertainment. It is expected to be shot in India from early June until November.

Mistry’s novel, set in post-Independence India until the Emergency, follows four characters: the rich widow Dina Dalal, tailor Ishvar Darji and his nephew Omprakash, and young student Maneck Kohlah. Their stories intersect in the novel, which was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize and won the Giller Prize in 1995.

A stage adaptation by Tamasha Theatre Company was produced in 2006 and later revived in 2007; last year, the BBC dramatized the story in the form of radio play.

The Variety report also states that preliminary casting for the show has begun in the UK. Mistry’s first novel, Such a Long Journey, was adapted by Sooni Taraporevala into a 1998 film. Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, the film starred Roshan Seth, Soni Razdan, Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah.