There is a new interest in conversion of popular fiction novels into films, by the Hindi film industry. Bollywood is increasingly banking on literature to gain a foothold in global cinema.

After it rediscovered Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's"Devdas" and adapted Rabindranath Tagore's "Chokher Bali", Bollywood has now come out with "Parineeta -The Married Woman".

Based on Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's acclaimed novel by the same name, the film marks the directorial debut of Pradeep Sarkar and features Sanjay Dutt,Saif Ali Khan,Dia Mirza,Raima Sen and introducesVidya Balan in the title role. The Vidhu Vinod Chopra production is hoping to do a recur of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's cinematic adaptation, "Devdas".The commercial success of Bhansali's mega budget Shah Rukh Khan-Madhuri Dixit-Aishwarya Rai-starrer has played a major role in revival of Bollywood's interest in literature.

Big bucks, however, have evaded films adapted from books like "Pinjar", "Maqbool" and "Raincoat" and international experiments like "Bride and Prejudice" and "Vanity Fair".

This trend has started getting into vogue owing to the success that NAMESAKE has enjoyed at the international level both in terms of critical acclaim as also as being able to project the existentialist dilemma that a person of the Diaspora faces. However, because of the topic that it was supposed to cover, NAMESAKE has been able to carve a place for itself at the box office internationally.

This is a new trend for the industry and it is gaining prominence owing to the fact that everybody is now on the lookout for that elusive script that would set the box office on fire. This is how the films are made in Hollywood and they are successful as well. But to expect the same to happen in the same vein in Hindi film industry as well could be too far fetched. This is primarily owing to the fact that the films that are being made are from the novels written in English and their milieu is such in urbanity.

As many as 17 Saratchandra Chattopadhyay novels have been adapted into Hindi and Bengali films. Similarly, Premchand's books "Shatranj Ke Khiladi", "Sadgati", "Gaban", "Godaan" and "Heera Moti" have been made into films.

In the Black & White era quite a lot of films were made on works of Sharat Chand Chatopadhayay's novels, and particular reference could be made about PARINEETA and DEVDAS which were hits. In the initial stages the works from Hindi or regional writers was adapted into films and it was finding moderate success.

The first film that was adapted from English novel by the Hindi film industry was GUIDE of R.K. Narayan. However it had raked a lot of controversy from the writer as it did not follow the story line and the screen adaptation was romanticized. It is altogether a different matter that GUIDE became super duper hit. After that there was a long hiatus before any English work by an Indian writer was adapted for Hindi film.

Shakespeare has however been a favorite muse with the Indian film makers, and ANGOOR was a huge hit as it was tempered to Indian situation. Vishal Bhardwaj has also used Shakespeare to establish his credentials as a film maker of repute manifest from his works like MAQBOOL and OMKARA.

Now with the novelty being demanded by the average viewer of the cinema and most of it being the English speaking audience who throng the multiplexes and are conversant with the story line as they have either read the novels or the reviews, and therefore provide an initial receptivity for the film on offer. It happened with NAMESAKE in India, but it could not hit the bulls eye, as the subject of Diaspora is still in its infancy in India.

Even then, it is a new experiment and it provides encouragement for the works especially those like Rag Durbari which is a roaring success, both as a novel and as a serial, to be adopted into a film. Script writing and good stories have come back into demand, it is just the question of widening the search for the writers, and look for them in the Indian literary traditions, and claiming a hit would never be a difficulty.