Agatha Christie's The Sittaford Mystery gets a new twist in celebrated filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj's adapted version, 'Charlie Chopra & The Mystery Of Solang Valley'. Watch the pilot episode on OTT and

Mona

The Queen of Crime’s fans are in for a real treat, as filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj picks up Agatha Christie’s celebrated novel, The Sittaford Mystery, and adapts it into a web series, tentatively titled, Charlie Chopra & The Mystery Of Solang Valley. The pilot, set in the snow-capped mountains of Himachal Pradesh, has already been dropped on Sony LIV, offering its subscribers a unique opportunity to co-create the title of this detective thriller. Wait… it gets better… after watching the episode, users can help the protagonist Charlie solve the mystery by finding clues!

Well, when it comes to the Agatha Christie, there have been numerous adaptations on screen, even if ‘she never cared much for the cinema, or for wireless and television’. But her ardent fans wouldn’t stop anytime soon. Bhardwaj, who has earlier adapted William Shakespeare’s tragedies Macbeth to Maqbool, Othello to Omkara and Hamlet to Haider, shared, “I grew up devouring all the mysterious tales of Agatha Christie. Her plots, characters and settings remain unparalleled in the genre and continue to excite storytellers even today.”

With National Award-winner Bhardwaj at the helm, the series boasts of an impressive cast, including Wamiqa Gabbi, Priyanshu Painyuli, Naseeruddin Shah, Neena Gupta and Ratna Pathak Shah. Bhardwaj is the director and co-writer, along with Anjum Rajabali and Jyotsna Hariharan. He is also the producer, along with Priti Shahani’s Tusk Tale Films in association with Agatha Christie Limited.

World’s Favourite Christie

And Then There Were None (1939) was named the ‘World’s Favourite Christie’. It also remains the most adapted work of Christie. It got a big screen outing in English as And Then There Were None in 1945, Ten Little Indians in1965 and again as And Then There Were None in 1974.

Its 1989 British version Ten Little Indians was set on safari in the African savannah. It got a Bollywood outing, replete with comedy, song and dance sequences, in Gumnaam (1965), starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood. The film had memorable songs, including Gumnaam Hai Koi and Hum Kaale Hain Toh. The story was also adapted into many Indian regional films, including Iravil (Tamil, 1970), Aduthathu (Tamil, 2012) and Aatagara (Kannada, 2015).

Booked for screen

• Death On The Nile, Christie’s 1937 novel has seen two film adaptations, one in 1978, and another in 2022, with the same title.
• Murder On The Orient Express (2017) takes from Christie’s 1934 novel by the same name.
• BR Chopra’s Dhund (1973) was inspired by Agatha Christie’s 1958 play The Unexpected Guest.
• Bengali films Chupi Chupi Aashey (1960), Shubho Mahurat (2003) and Chorabali (2016) are said to be inspired from The Mousetrap, The Crack’d From Side To Side and Cards On The Table, respectively. Malayalam movie Grandmaster (2012) takes after The A.B.C. Murders.

Movie Adapted from The Sittaford Mystery

The Sittaford Mystery, around which Charlie Chopra is based, has been adapted many times. It was adapted to television in Agatha Christie’s Marple series in 2006. It was also adapted as an episode in French series Les Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie in 2018.

The winning combination

• Veteran screenwriter Anjum Rajabali and acclaimed filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj have been wanting to work together for many years. As Agatha Christie Limited approached Bhardwaj for an adaptation, the duo grabbed the opportunity to collaborate. They are joined by Jyotsna Hariharan in writing the screenplay for Charlie Chopra & The Mystery Of Solang Valley.
• Rajabali, who has to his credit Drohkaal, Ghulam, The Legend of Bhagat Singh and Raajneeti, shares that an Agatha Christie adaptation on his resume brings him much joy. Even though he had read most of Christie’s works, but not The Sittaford Mystery. “Agatha Christie’s plots are inherently intriguing. Add to that the moral ambiguity that her characters have, and the fact that there is more than one suspect made it a very interesting and challenging screenplay to write,” he says.

• As the pilot episode introduces the element of supernatural dimension, it pushes the envelope further. Rajabali, all praise for Bhardwaj’s interesting take on adaptations and Hariharan’s sharp sense of screenwriting, vouches, “I can assure you that even those who have read the novel will be taken by surprise.”