Netflix adopts BBC’s Suitable Boy

A Suitable Boy will drop on Netflix a year after airing on BBC1

Global streamer Netflix has picked up UK drama studio Lookout Point’s adaptation of Indian author Vikram Seth’s 1993 novel A Suitable Boy, which is premiering on BBC1 this month.

In a deal brokered with BBC Studios, which owns Lookout Point, Netflix will be the exclusive home of A Suitable Boy for all territories except Canada, the US and China. In the UK and Ireland, the series will be available on Netflix 12 months after its release on BBC1.

Adapted by Andrew Davies (Pride & Prejudice, War & Peace) and directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake), A Suitable Boy tells the story of a spirited university student as she comes of age in India in 1951, at the same time the country is carving out its own identity as an independent nation and is about to go to the polls for its first democratic general election.

Davies, Nair and Seth exec produce the six-part drama, alongside Faith Penhale, Laura Lankester and Will Johnston for Lookout Point, Mona Qureshi and Ayela Butt for the BBC, and Lydia Dean Pilcher and Aradhana Seth.

A Suitable Boy is shot entirely on location in India, with its cast including Bollywood actor Ishaan Khatter (Beyond the Clouds), Tabu (The Namesake, Life of Pi) and rising star Tanya Maniktala in the central role.

In related news, Netflix is partnering with French studio Gaumont on a CGI animated action-comedy series based on Japanese cartoonist Stan Sakai’s comic book Usagi Yojimbo.

Titled Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, the Netflix adaptation is set in the far future and follows a teenage descendant of a famous warrior on his quest to become a true samurai.

The series is produced in partnership with Dark Horse Entertainment and Atomic Monster, while Mumbai-based 88 Pictures is the CGI animation studio.

Sakai exec produces with Gaumont’s Nicolas Atlan, Terry Kalagian, Sidonie Dumas and Christophe Riandee, Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg and Chris Tongue, and Atomic Monster’s James Wan, Michael Clear and Rob Hackett. Candie and Doug Langdale are attached as exec producers and showrunners.