Books are eternal. You can travel through them, make friends, imagine the most fantastical worlds in the universe of books. Many a films have been inspired through literary works of great writers. Some of the biggest recent hits are also based on literary works.
'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' is based on Sharadindu's fictional slueth. 'Devdas' has been made umpteen times in Bollywood including a modern adaptation 'Dev D'. Shakespeare too has caught the fascination of many including Vishal Bharadwaj who picked the tragic trio and made them into 'Maqbool', 'Omkara' and 'Haider'.
Chetan Bhagat too has contributed to Indian cinema with books that were made into '3 Idiots', 'Kai Po Che' and '2 States'.
Here are some movies that were inspired from books that you may not know about:
'Bandini' is a fabulous movie which was a benchmark for Nutan's career. She made sure that everyone noticed her in this beautiful story originally penned in Bengali (as Tamasi) by Jarasandha (Charu Chandra Chakrabarti).
'Guide' is a classic film based on famous writer RK Narayan's book. The film starred Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman and has some of the most beautiful and memorable songs in the film.
Based on Ruskin Bond's children's story, 'The Blue Umbrella' had some great performances by Pankaj Kapoor and child artist Shreya Sharma. The movie won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film
Based on one of the more dark books by Ruskin Bond 'Saat Khoon Maaf' saw a fabulous performance by Priyanka Chopra. It starred Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Annu Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Vivaan Shah and Usha Uthup.
'Nadiya Ke Paar', which was later remade into 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun' is based on Kohbar ki Shart by Keshav Prasad Mishra. It starred Sachin and Sadhana Singh. The more popular 'HAHK' is a family classic – starring Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit.
'Shatranj Ke Khiladi'- Based on Munshi Premchand's book, this Satyajit Ray movie makes it to the list of 'Must watch Bollywood'.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee adapted Mejdidi(Middle Sister) by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1967 to make a movie called 'Majhli Didi'. The film starred Dharmendra and Meena Kumari.
Earth or '1947: Earth' is a critically acclaimed film directed by Deepa Mehta. It is based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India. The film starred Aamir Khan, Rahul Khanna and Nandita Das.
'Safar' starring Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore is based on a novel by Bengali writer Ashutosh Mukherjee. Asit Sen, the director won a Filmfare for this movie and it is considered as one of Rajesh Khanna's best.
Sonam Kapoor's 'Aisha' is based on Jane Austen's famous novel Emma. The movie bombed at the Box – Office, but it made ample use of Sonam's status as a fashionista.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Saawariya', which marked the entry of Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor in the industry is based on Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky's story 'White Nights'
'Ek Chadar Maili Si' is a lesser known film, which starred Hema Malini, Rishi Kapoor, Poonam Dhillon and Kulbhushan Kharbada. The film is an adaptation of Rajinder Singh Bedi's Sahitya Akademi Award winning, classic Urdu novella, of the same name.
