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EXCLUSIVE: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is adapting THIS book for her next with Jio Studios
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is bringing to screen the story of Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai, which was also the subject of Vikramaditya Motwane’s recent Amazon Prime series, Jubilee.
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Jio Studios is planning to make it as a magnum opus that will be mounted on a huge scale
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Apart from the Devika Rani story, Ashwiny is also working on two other projects
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Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai's Bombay Talkies was also an inspiration behind the hit series, Jubilee
Filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari has established herself as one of the most sought-after directors of the Hindi film industry with content-driven films like Nil Battey Sannata, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and Panga. She has lately been exploring the digital space. Her last three projects—Ankahi Kahaniya, Break Point, and Faadu: A Love Story—have all been released on OTT, and it’s been three years since her last theatrical release, Panga. Although the filmmaker hasn’t yet announced her next feature film, she has been working on multiple projects, and one of them, we heard, is based on a book and will be produced by Jio Studios.
Pinkvilla has exclusively learnt that Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is working on the screen adaptation of Kishwar Desai's novel, The Longest Kiss: The Life and Times of Devika Rani, for Jio Studios. The 2020 book chronicles the life story of the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani, and her incredible contribution that catapulted Indian celluloid to new heights. Astonishingly beautiful, exceptionally talented, and a great-grand-niece of Rabindranath Tagore, Devika was the first international superstar in the 1930s and 1940s. She married the actor-producer-director Himanshu Rai, one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, in 1929, and together they set up India's first truly professional studio, Bombay Talkies. The studio dominated Indian cinema for a decade and became the launch pad for some of India's best-known talents, including Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, and Madhubala.
Devika Rani was a bold and confident woman with a progressive and rebellious mindset. After the controversial death of her husband in 1940, she ran the studio with a steel hand, crushing all rebellion and constantly walking a tightrope when it came to the men around her. Kishwar Desai's book unravels the life Devika kept away from the world—her love story, the struggle of being a woman at the helm of a hyper-male domain, and the soaring happiness and tragedy of the controversial life she lived. Vikramaditya Motwane’s recent Amazon Prime series, Jubilee, was reportedly inspired by the times of Devika and Himanshu’s studio, Bombay Times.
"Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is currently writing the film and is expected to take it on floors early next year. Jio Studios is planning to make it a magnum opus that will be mounted on a huge scale. The research and writing are currently in full swing, and it will take some time to finish the script. They are simultaneously pitching it to actors; however, no one has been finalized yet," a source close to the development told us. The director is apparently also working on several other projects, including the biopic of Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy, which was announced in 2020, and a two-heroine film with Excel Entertainment, which is likely to star Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kiara Advani. "All these films are currently in the writing stage, and although Ashwiny is committed to them, she will decide on her next film depending on which one materializes first. The Devika Rani story seems to be her priority at this moment, but in case things don’t fall into place as planned, she could take on others project as well," the source further clarified.
We reached out to Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and the representatives of Jio Studios for confirmation. However, we are yet to hear back from them.
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