in august when saiswaroopa iyer got a call from a studio offering to buy the film rights to her second book she wondered if it was a prank for one all her books had been selfpublished on amazon the book they wanted avishi vishpala of rig veda remagined about a mythological warrior princess was released a year ago though it had made it to kindles bestseller charts and been discussed by reading groups and bloggersin fact the studio said it could be indias answer to wonder woman says the investment analystturnedauthor who chose the selfpublishing route because it was faster and gave her more control over her writing scheduleiyers surprise deal is just one example of the bookadaptation boom that has been fuelled by homegrown and international streaming services and the success of recent film adaptations such as raazi based on harinder sikkas novel calling sehmatone reason is that the quality of adaptations has improved no longer do viewers go back with the feeling that the book was better than the movie such is the demand that sidharth jain a former producer with hotstar set up storyink a company that focuses on booktoscreen adaptations and has closed over 40 such deals this year jains work is identifying stories suitable for adaptation and finding the right production house director and writers to translate them on screen producers and directors dont read books they barely read scripts so books have been neglected as a source of content unlike in hollywood this is a golden time for writers and creators who have talent and stories to tell he feelsso whats the recipe for a successful adaptation the story has to be cinematic says jain apart from the inherent drama book series with complicated plots and characters that can be turned into a franchise are an important part of creating visual content even if the plot is not great but the characters are it can be a good adaptation he says while streaming services are driving the demand for fresh content they are also putting pressure on tv and film companies to look for better stories says jainbooks are popular because they offer readymade original content says priti shahani president junglee pictures which has produced two successful adaptations in the form of raazi and bareilly ki barfi the latter was based on the french novel the ingredients of lovejunglee pictures works closely with publishers and has an inhouse team and a network of readers to identify both indian and international books and is currently working on arnab rays mythological thriller the mahabharata murders and the exile the stunning inside story of osama bin laden and al qaeda in flight by investigative journalists cathy scottclark and adrian levyadapting a book to the screen can have its challenges the characters in books have thoughts and so you have to find ways of making it outward rather than inward says shahaniaiming to bring the world of literature closer to the world of cinema is another