In the late 1990s the BBC was planning to film a five-part mini-series of the novel with Rahul Bose in the lead, but due to pressure from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka (a later novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988 caused widespread uproar in the Muslim world), the filming permit was revoked and the project was cancelled.[19] Later in 2003, the novel was adapted for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company.[20] BBC Radio Four broadcast a dramatic adaptation in 2017 at the 70th anniversary of Indian independence, repeated in five parts in 2021.[21]
Director Deepa Mehta collaborated with Salman Rushdie on a new version of the story, the film Midnight's Children.[22][23] British-Indian actor Satya Bhabha played the role of Saleem Sinai[24] while other roles were played by Indian actors Shriya Saran, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Siddharth Narayan, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan,[25] Shahana Goswami, Anita Majumdar[26] and Darsheel Safary.[27] The film was premiered in September 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival (2012-09-09)[28] and the Vancouver International Film Festival (2012-09-27).[29][30] For an academic overview of the adaptations of Midnight's Children, see Mendes and Kuortti (2016).[31]
In June 2018 streaming service Netflix announced plans to adapt Midnight's Children as an original Netflix TV series.[32] By the end of 2019, the project had been abandoned. Although showrunner Vishal Bhardwaj had received support from Rushdie for his script and had done much of the work on casting and scouting locations, after the compromises he had made on his poorly-received 2017 film Rangoon he would not go ahead without agreement for a more ambitious project with a greater special effects budget than Netflix was prepared to agree.[33]
