Farrukh Dhondy

Agent:  Conrad Williams

Biography: Screenwriter, playwright and best-selling novelist, Farrukh in his incarnation as Commissioning Editor for Multi-Cultural Programming for Channel 4 (84-97) commissioned hundreds of hours of TV in all genres, including the Oscar nominated Salaam Bombay, Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen, and award-winning TV shows like Desmonds and Family Pride.  

Current work in progress:

  • 2015 - VICTORIA AND ABDUL, a feature film screenplay about the relationship between Queen Victoria and her favourite Indian Prince, commissioned by Gurinder Chadha's Bend it Films
  • 2012 - LONDONSTANI, a feature film adaptation of the novel by Gautam Malkani for Slingshot Films backed by the BFI
  • 2012 - Farrukh's opera based on Rudyard Kipling's Just So stories, score by Danyal Dhondy, was given its world premier performance at the Riverside Studios in August in the Tete a Tete opera festival
  • 2011 - A BEND IN THE RIVER, a feature film adaptation of the novel by V.S Naipaul (for director Hugh Hudson)

TV script credits

  • COME TO MECCA (6 plays for the BBC)
  • NO PROBLEM (sitcom, Channel 4)
  • TANDOORI NIGHTS (Comedy drama, Channel 4)
  • EMPRESS AND THE MUNSHI (Drama, Central TV)
  • KING OF THE GHETTO (Drama serial, BBC)
  • ANNIE'S BAR (Channel 4)
  • RAJDHANI (Star TV India)
  • NOT DOING CHRISTMAS (BBC 2007)

Screenplays

  • BANDIT QUEEN (Executive writer)
  • SPLIT WIDE OPEN
  • THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET, 4 films at script stage
  • THE RAMAYAN (Numero Uno Films, Bombay)
  • THE RISING (Kaleidoscope films)
  • AMERICAN DAYLIGHT (Kaleidoscope Films, directed by Oscar-winning director Roger Christian)
  • TAKE THREE GIRLS (Inspired Movies)
  • EXITZ (Dir. Laurens Postma)
  • RED MERCURY (Dir. Roy Battersby)
  • KISNA (Subhash Ghai films. One of a team of writers)
  • MAQBOOL (Kaleidoscope. Script Editor)
  • COVER STORY (Dir. Laurens Postma)

Theatre:

KARNA - WARRIOR OF THE SUN (Delhi and Chennai)

  • MAMA DRAGO (Arts Theatre & ICA, London)
  • VIGILANTES (Unicorn Theatre, London)
  • SHAPESTERS (English National Theatre)
  • FILM, FILM, FILM (Shaw Theatre, London)
  • BRAIN CHILD (Delhi- various venues)
  • VICTORIA AND ABDUL (Mumbai, Tata Theatre, Delhi, Pune)
  • MIRANDA (Edinburgh Assembly Rooms and India International Drama Festival 2011

Fiction, Novels and Short Story Collections:

EAST END AT YOUR FEET (Macmillan)

COME TO MECCA (Harper Collins)

POONA COMPANY (Golllancz)

TRIP TRAP (Gollancz)

BOMBAY DUCK (Jonathan Cape)

BLACK SWAN (Gollancz)

JANAKY AND THE GIANT (Harper Collins)

CLR JAMES: A BIOGRAPHY (Weidenfeld)

RUN (Bloomsbury)

THE BIKINI MURDERS (Harper Collins India. For three weeks on the top of the Indian best seller lists)

RUMI, AN INTRODUCTORY TRANSLATION (Harper Collins, India and Arcade USA)

ADULTERY AND OTHER STORIES (Harper Collins, India)

LONDON COMPANY (Hachette India)

PROPHET OF LOVE (Harper Collins, India)