Roy Kapur Films’ television series of William Dalrymple’s ‘The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of The East India Company’ set to be an international production

Earlier we announced that Indian producer Siddharth Roy Kapur’s production house, Roy Kapur Films, had acquired the audio-visual rights to William Dalrymple’s masterpiece bestseller, ‘The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of The East India Company. Now, we have learned the adaptation for an incredible television series has the green light!

The book tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires, the Mughal Empire, disintegrated and came to be replaced by the British East India Company – a dangerously unregulated private company based thousands of miles away in a small office just five windows wide.

The series will be mounted as an International co-production between independent studio wiip and Roy Kapur Films. Produced across the U.S., U.K. and India, wiip and RKF intend to put together a diverse international team of writers to create a truly global series both in scale and quality. Executive Producers on the project include wiip’s Paul Lee (“Dickinson”) and Mark Roybal (“No Country for Old Men”), Roy Kapur Films’ Siddharth Roy Kapur (“Dangal” “Yeh Ballet”) and XPat Productions’ Naz Haider and Siva Natarajan.

Siddharth Roy Kapur says, “I believe that stories that are compelling, relevant and authentic have the potential to resonate with audiences across all nationalities and cultures, and The Anarchy is definitely one such story. We couldn’t have asked for better partners tbook and to create what we envision to be the definitive account of the colonisation of the Indian sub-continent.”

Mark Roybal adds, “Siddharth is not only India’s most formidable producer, but he is also a true gentleman. We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with him, along with our good friends at XPat, on The Anarchy. Paul, the wiip team and I are humbled – and to be honest, slightly terrified – that Mr. Dalrymple has entrusted us with his epic masterpiece. There couldn’t be a more opportune moment for adapting The Anarchy into a television event.”

William Dalrymple, who is also on board as a consultant for the project said earlier, “I don’t think I have ever written a book more obviously crying out to be adapted than The Anarchy and I can’t think of anyone in India better to adapt it than Siddharth Roy Kapur. I’m very excited looking at the initial treatment note, talking about the various ways to bring this book alive and to bring the characters I’ve been living with over the last 6 years onto the screen, so that everyone else can see them in flesh and blood. It’s an incredibly exciting moment and I have high expectations of this project!”

Stay tuned for more!