Sameer Nair-led Applause Entertainment announced on Monday that they are associating with celebrated author Jeffery Archer for a significant step in storytelling. The company has brought the rights for six of Jeffrey’s novels, namely, The Clifton Chronicles, Fourth Estate, First Among Equals, The Eleventh Commandment, Sons of Fortune, and Heads You Win.
Talking about this association, Sameer Nair said, “I have grown up being an Archer fan. He has a style of writing, every book of his is like a cinematic saga. Of course, some of them have been ripped off in India in the past, but we want to tell those stories legitimately, and that is what we are doing. It took us a year to get this deal done. We have got six of his books, so the opportunities are immense.”
Author Jeffery Archer, who joined the conference virtually, spoke about the association and said, “I look at it as a privilege working with Applause Entertainment, but I must warn you that I will be sitting here and watching it for the results.”
He also explained that a reason why he chose to collaborate with Sameer Nair and team was because they promised to stick to the original. “I was delighted to hear Applause saying that they will stick to the original story. When I read someone else’s work, and I see it translated on screen, and some moron tries to change the story because they think they are better than the original writer, I often get upset. They have already promised to stick to the original story. I want my stories as it is and that’s why I am delighted to join Applause. They are serious about a writers’ work, that’s important to me.”
Sameer Nair also explained the future roadmap of this association and shared that all plans to execute this in the best way are underway. He shared, “All of Jeffrey’s stories are timeless. They can be retold and reimagined in different ways. I want to put these stories out as a challenge to our creative friends. As to which book they pick, how they reimagine it. I believe that if you buy the rights for something, you don’t unnecessarily meddle with the original. If you want to change the story, you are not welcome.”
Sameer added, “Some things we are approaching directly as series, and we are looking at doing a film version and language version with some. We also want to see what ideas people have. We are going to tell these global stories as local, and it will end up on one of the major streaming platforms. In the next 3-6 months, you will hear announcements of progress, activities. Like he said, you have to write a great screenplay, and once you get that, everything else is pretty straightforward.”
