British star of Bridgerton and Alex Rider, Charithra Chandran, is attached to lead Synchronicity Films and Photoplay Films’ TV series Song of the Sun God, currently in development with distributor Cineflix Rights.
The project is a 6 x 60’ adaptation of Australian Tamil author and lawyer Shankari Chandran’s best-selling debut novel of the same name. BAFTA-nominated UK screenwriter Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Wuthering Heights) is penning the script with Shankari as a creative consultant.
The contemporary emotional thriller, the story of Song of the Sun God takes place across the UK, Australia and Sri Lanka. It explores the loves, lies, and misdemeanours spanning three generations of a close-knit Sri Lankan family, whose story is inextricably entangled in their country’s three-decade-long civil war.
Charithra will star as Leela, a young Australian woman living her life in London, largely disconnected from her own culture and unaware of long-held family secrets. An intensely personal and dangerous journey takes her across three continents to find her lost aunt and uncover the shocking reason for her disappearance.
Executive producing the series are Claire Mundell for Synchronicity Films and Karen Radzyner for Photoplay. Song of the Sun God is one of the projects that Radzyner brought with her to Photoplay from her previous company, Dragonnet, when she joined as head of development in March. Charithra will act as an associate producer.
Cineflix Rights has joined the project as a creative and financing partner, with first option on exclusive worldwide distribution. The project has also received development funding from Screen Australia.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with such a dynamic team of talented women to bring this female-led story of a little known war to life – Shankari is an incredible novelist and Olivia’s screenwriting compellingly captures the emotion and jeopardy for Shankari’s three generations of women,” said Radzyner.
“With Charithra now set to play our lead on screen and join myself and Claire on the production, we couldn’t be galvanised. There has never been a better time to tell this powerful story. We can’t wait to bring it to the screen.”
Synchronicity Films, which produced 2018 BBC/ABC thriller The Cry, is headquartered in Glasgow and has a Melbourne office headed by Ruth Underwood.
The company’s managing and creative director, Mundell, said it had a drive and passion for adapting powerful books for screen, of which Song of the Sun God fits the bill.
“Shankari Chandran’s novel is a poignant, and deeply moving story of the Sri Lankan conflict seen through the prism of one family. With its timely and universal themes, we feel the project will resonate with global audiences. We are excited that Charithra is both joining the cast and the producing team.”
Charithra Chandran is repped by Jonathan Arun Group in the UK and Gersh in the US.