English Entertainment
Mira Nair speaks up on “A Suitable Boy”
MUMBAI: It was a best-seller when it was released a score and more years ago. Now, Vikram Seth’s "A Suitable Boy" is catching the attention in Britain as it airs as a six-part series on BBC One during primetime. Directed by Mira Nair, it has a cast of 110 Asian actors and at the time of writing, four episodes of the show had been aired.
Nair, who is known to be pretty blunt when she speaks, has expressed that she wished she had the same production budget for A Suitable Boy as the makers of The Crown did.
According to published reports, the BBC invested pounds sterling 16 million (Rs 160 crore) on the six part series, making it about 2.67 million pounds (Rs 26-odd crore) an episode. As against that, The Crown had a budget of close to 10 million pounds an episode and about a 100 million pounds for the season.
Speaking to the Economist last week, Nair said: “The show has the magnificence and sweep of The Crown. Let me tell with my 30 years of experiencing of making films about my part of the world for the world, you never get the budget of The Crown. You get what you get and you have to be so assured and have an amazing team so that we can achieve that sweep. Every moment of A Suitable Boy is shot on location in forts, crumbling palaces, old havelis and refurbished bridges..we did all this to create a sense of that layering of history. We did that more with our experience our sensibility, our taste, and much less with oodles of money.”
She further added that she hoped that the BBC and media in England would reflect the diversity of its own people. “I have yearned for Goodness Gracious Me for over 20 years. It had such brilliant writing for television, yet it is not there anymore. And it’s not as if it is not there, but the talent exists in the British Asian scene. I don’t see it being fostered. Now, my British Asian friends are saying to now that the BBC has spent its wad on A Suitable Boy, they’ll say there’s no room for anymore this year. That’s the thinking that should sort of go away.”
Nair also disclosed that three years were spent on adapting it, after experienced script writer Andrew Davies worked with author Seth to churnout the adaptation of the 1400-odd page book into a tight screenplay.
“I got into the party much later. They did a fabulous job distilling the massive tome. I wanted it to be less Pride and Prejudice and more the world that I wanted to evoke at that time..to shift the balance. I wanted to integrate the politics so it reflects the India of now to integrate the politics of now,” she expressed. “The search for lover, the search for who we are, the search for who we would spend our lives with, those are universal searches. The story is timely but the politics of it is also remarkably timely. Remember at that time the Hindu Muslim community were so syncretic in their song, in their culture, their language, in their friendships and that is so sadly and in a targeted fashion being obliterated slowly and surely in the fabric of our Indian society.”
A Suitable Boy will air on Netflix later this year. It boasts a stellar cast: Tabu, Ishan Khattar, Tanya Maniktala, Rasika Duggal, Mahira Kakkar, Ram Kapoor, Gagan dev Riar, Vivek Gomber, Vivaan Shah, Shahana Goswami, Mikhail Sen, Namit Das, Randip Hooda, Amir Bhashir, Ranvir Shorey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vinay Pathak and Manoj Pahwa.
The series follows the story of four families held together by Mrs Rupa Mehra’s desire to find a good match for her daughter Lata in 1951-52. Interwoven is the story of a newly-independent India with all the pulls and pressures of its first general election and Hindu-Muslim religious strife.
It was shot on location in Lucknow, Maheshwar and Kanpur. Aradhna Seth’s Lookout Point was the production partner. Andrew Davies and Vikram Seth share the writing credits while the Hindi, Urdu and Awadhi dialogues are by Hriday Lani. The series is being distributed by Viniyard Films and the BBC.
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English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
