Endemol Shine gets You Beneath Your Skin

Endemol Shine India has optioned writer and activist Damyanti Biswas’s Indian crime novel You Beneath Your Skin to develop as a multipart drama series.

Abhishek Rege

You Beneath Your Skin, which was published in September 2019, is set in New Delhi and tells the story of an Indian-American single mother and her autistic teenage son whose comfortable middle-class lives are turned upside down by a police investigation into the murders of several women living in slums.

The novel tackles many endemic problems in India, including violence against women, slum poverty and police corruption, and all proceeds from the option will go towards social enterprises in New Delhi.

Abhishek Rege, CEO of Endemol Shine India, said: “You Beneath Your Skin is a crime thriller, layered with issues of poverty, misogyny and corruption. Taking a leaf out of the vast legacy of phenomenal women writers in the crime thriller genre, Damyanti’s book brings a sensitivity to an otherwise violent genre.

“The protagonist is fascinating as she is a single mother and traversing an unorthodox life through the rather orthodox setting of Delhi. Gripping, relevant and hard-hitting, this is a story peopled with many characters, multiple fractured relationships, small intimate moments and effective back stories. This is a thriller with a family at the centre of the plot. These are the stories that Endemol Shine India wants to bring to the fore.”