Mira Nair, award-winning director of Salaam Bombay and The Namesake among others, adapts one of the longest single-volume novels, over 1,300 pages with more than a 100 characters, as a web-series for BBC.
Set in post-independence India, it is a story of a mother's attempt to find her daughter a suitable boy, embedded in a historic moment of bloodshed, chaos, land reforms, and class barriers.
Tanya Maniktala plays Lata Mehra, whose pursuit for love and whose mother's pursuit for her marriage anchors the story. Tabu plays Saeeda Bai, a courtesan, and Ishaan Khatter plays Maan Kapoor. The cast also includes Namit Das, Ram Kapoor, Shahana Goswami, Vijay Varma, and Rasika Duggal.
Written by Andrew Davies (who has previously adapted Pride and Prejudice and War & Peace for the BBC) this series begins on BBC One on 26th July. So far, no announcement regarding its streaming accessibility in India has been made, given that BBC One is not accessible here.