The trailer of A Suitable Boy, the TV series directed by Mira Nair, released on Saturday. The six part series has been adapted from Vikram Seth’s award winning novel of the same title.
Mira has roped in Tabu, Ishaan Khattar, Tanya Maniktala, Rasika Dugal and others to play the main characters in the TV adaptation which will premiere on BBC One. The actors also feature in the trailer, which is a little over a minute long.
The trailer begins with a voiceover that says, ‘No one can be sure of what the future will be’, and we're introduced to Lata Mehra (Tanya Maniktala), a college student who tells her parents that she does not want to get married. The story is set in 1951, around the same time that an independent India gears towards its first general elections.
Ishaan Khattar plays Maan Kapoor, the young son of an influential politician who gets into a forbidden romance with Saaeda Bai, essayed by Tabu. The series marks Mira Nair and Tabu collaborating after 14 years. Their last outing was the 2006 award winning film The Namesake, also starring Irrfan Khan. The Namesake is an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name.
For Ishaan Khattar, A Suitable Boy is his first time collaborating with Mira Nair.
Sharing the trailer of the series on Instagram, he wrote, "A first sneak peek into the world of #ASuitableBoy @bbc: Love will push you beyond your boundaries. Based on the best-selling novel, A Suitable Boy starts 26th July on BBC One and @BBCiPlayer. "
The best-selling novel by Vikram Seth narrates two parallel stories. The first plot revolves around Lata Mehra, a spirited university student who intends to pursue her academic journey by studying English literature. Lata is pressured by her family to marry a man that they find suitable for her. However, she meets several suitors, one of them a Muslim to the horror of her parents, and later meets the man she would go on to marry. The story is set in a colourful fictional town, on the banks of the river Ganga. In a parallel plot is the forbidden romance between Maan Kapoor, the youngest son of an influential politician, and Saaeda Bai, a courtesan. Maan meets Saaeda during a Holi party and falls in love with her. The two begin an affair and the plot traces the duo’s relationship.
The series will premiere on BBC One on July 26.