Industry

Endemol Shine India announced that they have acquired the rights for acclaimed author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s yet unreleased book Lioness: The last Queen. The latest book by the award-winning author who has penned bestselling books like The Mistress of Spices, Palace of Illusions, and Forest of Enchantments - Lioness is a historical novel based on the life of a beautiful, charismatic & hotheaded Indian Queen. Mumbai-based Book to Screen Company - The Story Ink has put the deal together and will also be involved as one of the producers.
Abhishek Rege, CEO, Endemol Shine India, said, “Endemol Shine India is pleased to collaborate with an acclaimed author such as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The stories she tells and the characters she etches are as inspiring as they are intriguing. With ‘Lioness’ she brings alive a hero whose story is largely unknown. Authentic, motivational, patriotic yet tragic, we can’t wait to bring alive the story of this legendary queen.”

Said author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, "Lioness: The Last Queen is a truthful & complex tale of an amazing woman with great qualities and fatal flaws. Her indomitable spirit and the determination with which she continued fighting the British with whatever weapons she had available to her is inspiring to us even today. I am thrilled to collaborate with Endemol Shine India and Sidharth to bring to screen, this fascinating story of a queen who fought against the tyranny of the British and stood tall against the insidious cultural colonization of the time. I hope that this story is an apt ode to this lioness of India!”

Sidharth Jain, Chief Storyteller & Producer of The Story Ink said “I have been patiently waiting since years to produce a project based on Chitra’s book, so when she told me about Lioness, I jumped at the opportunity. Endemol Shine India was the first company I reached out to for a collaboration and they were excited to come on board & lead the project. Couldn’t have celebrated the completion of two years of The Story Ink, with a better announcement than this. Excited to get this going.”

Lioness: The last Queen, is the yet unpublished novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and will be out towards the end of this year.