Books may seem like obvious source material for web series. It’s not that simple

'Cinema is not a writer’s medium,” he rued to The Print, “…the writer comes pretty low in the food chain…'

We may be in the age of the adaptation, when narratives that started out in one form find their moment on an entirely distinct medium. But what makes one story ripe for adaptation and another not? Answers range from the intuitive (How visual is this story? Does most of the action happen inside a character’s head?) to the pragmatic (Is it set among entirely fantastic landscapes that will be exorbitant to create?) to questions of complexity (Is this a story with layers, a lot happening beneath the surface) to expansiveness (Are there multiple protagonists who move the story forward?).

Not all these considerations exist for cinema, and neither is the role of the writer central to the process, says screenplay writer- show runner Sudip Sharma, who has been wildly successful at both. Having written powerful films like Udta Punjab and NH10, he then went on to adapt Tarun J Tejpal’s The Story of My Assassins into the electrifying Paatal Lok. “Cinema is not a writer’s medium,” he rued to The Print, “…the writer comes pretty low in the food chain…” 

In contrast, writers are often the most crucial figure in a web series and bring together other elements, from direction and cinematography to casting, music, production, set design, costumes. Here’s four series that took their book-to-web adaptation game to iconic status.

Game of Thrones

Can you even write of web series without writing of GoT? In many ways, Game of Thrones flouts the constraints of pragmatism — think budget — but it demonstrates what visionary thinking can do to already visionary material. George R R Martin’s epic fantasy seven-part series A Song of Ice and Fire was acquired by HBO in 2007 and began airing in 2011, originally just ten episodes an hour long. Martin’s writing has “complex story lines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing,” said literary critic Jeff VanderMeer, and we can see why Season 1 immediately racked up 13 Emmy nominations. The rest is history.

Sacred Games

Based on Vikram Chandra’s 2006 novel of the same name, Sacred Games was India’s first original Netflix’s series, which meant both writers and directors were going in blind. They certainly came out covered in glory. Co-written by Vikramaditya Motwane and Varun Grover and directed by Anurag Kashyap and Motwane — Motwane being the figure who straddled both writing and directing — the show garnered hefty praise for its performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Saif Ali Khan, among others — as well as its gritty writing. The New York Times included Sacred Games on its 30 Best International TV Shows of the Decade list.

Paatal Lok

It may not have been the first but just when viewer and critic buzz had decided that Sacred Games was a rare feat, along came the sensational Paatal Lok, 2020’s sweeping hit, giving Amazon Prime the breakaway success of the genre.

Based on Tarun Tejpal’s The Story of My Assassins, the book had already garnered tremendous critical acclaim, with even the legendary V S Naipaul calling it “clever and inventive. In the profoundest way, Tarun Tejpal writes for India.”

Screenplay-writer Sudip Sharma says he loved the book’s fierce quality that managed not to lose empathy for its characters despite its bleak worldview. “Those characters got me hooked,” he says. His adaptation did the same: season one was nominated for 8 awards at the first FilmFare OTT Awards and won universal raves from critics and audiences for offering a glimpse into the real India — complete with its ironies, its faultlines, and its heartbreaking brutality.

Good Omens

It might not be an obvious pick but Good Omens is one of those books whose cult status went on to be replicated in miniseries form, no mean feat when you’re adapting legends Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Its 8.1 IMDb rating, however, shows audiences found the visualisation captivating. Originally aired weekly on BBC, the show went on to Amazon Prime and is a classic — heaven and hell, antichrist and armageddon, but told in the incomparable style of Gaiman and Pratchett — and with web talent to do it justice, from David Tennant and Frances McDormand to Michael Sheen.

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