MUMBAI: William Dalrymple’s best-selling historical book on colonialism The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company is getting an adaptation for the small screen.

Independent production house Wiip has teamed up with India’s Roy Kapur Films to adapt the tome, which traces the rise of The East India Company and the fall of Mughal Empire. The Anarchy was recommended by former US president Barack Obama amongst his top reads in 2019. The book was recently listed as a finalist for the  Cundill History Prize 2020, one of the most prestigious awards in the world for non-fiction writing.

Executive producers lined up for the venture are Wiip’s Paul Lee and Mark Roybal, Roy Kapur Films’ Siddharth Roy Kapur and XPat Productions’ Naz Haider and Siva Natarajan. Roy Kapur Films bought the rights to the book earlier in June this year.

Wiip and RKF will bring onboard a diverse international team of writers to create a global series both in scale and quality.

“Siddharth is not only India’s most formidable producer, but he is also a true gentleman. We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with him, along with our good friends at XPat, on The Anarchy. Paul, the Wiip team and I are humbled — and to be honest, slightly terrified — that Dalrymple has entrusted us with his epic masterpiece. There couldn’t be a more opportune moment for adapting The Anarchy into a television event,” said Wiip’s Mark Roybal, as quoted by Variety.

The Walt Disney Company India former MD and current president of the Producers Guild of India Siddharth Roy Kapur produced 2016’s most successful movie Dangal. It was India’s biggest worldwide grosser of all time.

“I believe that stories that are compelling, relevant and authentic have the potential to resonate with audiences across all nationalities and cultures, whichever part of the world those stories may come from. We are delighted to be working with Paul, Mark and their team at Wiip to bring to life this fascinating book and to create what we envision to be the definitive story of the colonization of the Indian sub-continent,” added Roy Kapur.

Dalrymple will act as creative consultant for the show. The Historian-author has penned bestsellers like City of Djinns, White Mughals and In Xanadu.