Gurjinder Basran's "The Wedding"

Gurjinder Basran is the award-winning author of four novels: Everything Was Goodbye, winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and a Chatelaine Magazine Book Club pick; Someone You Love Is Gone; Help! I’m Alive!; and The Wedding. A Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio alumna hailed by the CBC as one of “Ten Canadian women writers you need to read,” Basran lives in Delta, BC, with her family.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of The Wedding:

The Wedding, an episodic novel told from fifteen unique perspectives about a lavish week-long Indian wedding would require a dream ensemble cast that was capable of portraying a high maintenance bride, an unsure groom, a conflicted wedding party, frenemies, gossiping aunties, a local bad boy, and a host of ever-watchful event staff. Since the novel is set in Canada and is multi-generational, and there are not a lot of well-known Indian actors, I’ll take some liberties in casting and draw from Bollywood and Hollywood past and present and cast just a few of the fifteen starring roles:

The Bride, Devi : Alia Bhatt, a British born Indian actress who is known for portraying strong women would be perfect to play the somewhat unlikeable strong willed bride Devi.

The Groom, Baby: If we could go back in time to the early 2000s, I would choose Bollywood heartthrob, Hritick Roshan because he was always able to portray vulnerability and strength.

The Groom’s brother, Gobind: Ishaan Khatter, recently made famous in North America for his role in The Perfect Couple and in the Netflix hit The Royals would be perfect to play the handsome older brother.

The Family Friend, Sonia, aka “Mottu”: Lilly Singh with her authenticity and comedy chops, would be perfect for this character who has loads of personality and is easily the most likeable character in the book.

The Photographer, Rish : Dev Patel would smoulder as the ever-romantic artsy eligible bachelor.

Dream Director would be Mira Nair who brilliantly directed Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala and can we get Mindy Kaling to produce because really, she has her pulse on bringing diverse characters to the big screen.

Visit Gurjinder Basran's website.

Q&A with Gurjinder Basran.

--Marshal Zeringue