Hanif Kureishi will adapt Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger for the screen, according to Variety.
The Indian journalist Adiga's debut novel won the Man Booker Prize for 2008. Written in epistolary form, it involves Balram, the son of a rickshaw-puller in rural India, and his rise through society. Initially employed in a tea shop, he becomes a chauffeur in Delhi and a businessman in Bangalore. There's a lot of social and class commentary, a bit of murdering, and it's pretty funny.
It would be crass to say "it's going to be a bit like Slumdog Millionaire" just because it's an Indian rags-to-riches crime story, but suffice to say it's reasonably clear why this is an enticing prospect for the cinema at the moment.
Kureishi is no slouch when it comes to films and novels though. He is himself the bestselling author of the likes of The Buddha of Suburbia and Intimacy, and wrote screenplays for Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and My Beautiful Laundrette. He's also recently been adapting his own The Black Album. Safe hands then.
The film will be part-funded by the UK film council. More news as we get it.