A Passage To India (film) - Production - Background

Background

E. M. Forster began to write A Passage to India during a stay in India in 1911 (he was drawn there by a Muslim he had tutored while both were students at Cambridge), but completed it only after he returned to India as a private secretary to a maharajah in 1921. The novel was published in 1924. It differs from Forster's other major works in its overt political content, as opposed to the lighter tone and more subdued political subtext contained in works such as Howards End and A Room With a View .

A Passage to India deals with the delicate balance between the English and the Indians during the British Raj. It follows the story of a British woman, Adela Quested, who is perhaps sexually assaulted by the Indian, Dr. Aziz, while on a sightseeing tour of the dark, whispering Marabar caves. Aziz is accused of rape, the British community is outraged, but the Indians strongly support Dr. Aziz, who claims his innocence. The question of what really happened at the caves remains unanswered in the novel. A Passage to India sold well and was widely praised in literary circles. It is generally regarded as Foster's best novel, quickly becoming a classic of English literature.

During years a number of film directors were interested in adapting the novel to the big screen, but Forster, who was criticized when the novel was published, rejected every offer to buy the film rights believing that any film of his novel would be a travesty. He feared that whoever made it would come down on the side of the English or the Indians, and he wanted it balanced. However he did allow Indian authoress Santha Rama Rau to adapt the novel for the theater. The play, staged as a courtroom drama, starts in Fielding's house with Aziz doing the collar scene and ends at the trial. It was produced for the Oxford Playhouse, later moving to the West End in London in 1960 for 261 performances. The play was directed by Frank Huaser, with Pakistani actor Zia Mohyeddin as Aziz, Norman Woddland as Fielding, and Enid Lorimer as Mrs. Moore.

David Lean had read the novel and saw the play in London in 1960 and, impressed, he attempted to purchase the rights at that time, but Forster, who had rejected Santha Rama Rau’s suggestion to allow the famous Indian film director Satyajit Ray to make a film, still said no. Forster, however, allowed the play to be made for television by the BBC in 1965. This production was directed by Waris Hussein, an Indian working for the BBC. Zia Mohyeddin was cast as Aziz and Sybil Thorndike played Mrs Moore. The television play was also well received. However, having given this limited permission, Forster remained adamant in his denial on anyone trying to make a film out of his novel. Following Forster's death in 1970, the self-governing board of fellows of King's College at Cambridge inherited the rights to his books. However Donald A Parry, chief executor, turned down all approaches, including those of Joseph Losey, Ismael Merchant and James Ivory, and Waris Hussein, who after adapting Santha Rama Rau’s play now wanted to make a feature film. Only ten years later, when Professor Bernard Williams, a film enthusiast, became chief executor, the rights for the film adaptation became available.

Lord Brabourne, (John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne), whose father had been Viceroy of India, and who was married to the daughter of Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy, had been after the rights for twenty years. He had produced a series of films based on Agatha Christie’s mysteries including the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express. In March 1981, John Brabourne and his business partner, Richard Gooddwin, finally obtained the rights to make a film adaptation of A Passage to India. The contract stipulated that Santha Rama Rau would write the screenplay and it reserved the rights to approve the director. Brabourne, a great admirer of the film Doctor Zhivago, wanted David Lean to direct the film. By September 1981, Lean had been approved as a director and Santha Rama Rau had completed a draft of the script.

When Brabourne asked David Lean to direct A Passage to India, the famous director was ready to break his 14-year-long hiatus from filmmaking following the mostly negative reviews he received for Ryan's Daughter in 1970. Since then, Lean had fought hard to make a two-part epic telling the true story of the mutiny on the Bounty, for which he could not get the necessary financing, and had given some thought about doing Out of Africa, based on the book by Isak Dinesen of which Sydney Pollack ultimately directed a version in 1985.