A secretly filmed adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children has finished shooting in Sri Lanka. The production was suspended after Iran complained to Sri Lanka, but President Mahinda Rajapaksa overturned the ban.
Director Deepa Mehta said she chose the island location over India or Pakistan, where the story is set, to avoid protests from religious groups. Mr Rushdie was the target of a fatwa from Iran for his novel The Satanic Verses and Ms Mehta’s films have angered Hindus.
Midnight’s Children deals with India’s pre– and post-independence history. It tells the story of Saleem Sinai, who was born on the stroke of Indian independence day in 1947. The novel won the 1981 Booker prize and was chosen as the “Booker of Bookers” in 1993.
