‘Bridgerton’ Star Charithra Chandran To Lead Olivia Hetreed Drama ‘Song Of The Sun God’

Forum 1 year ago

‘Bridgerton’ Star Charithra Chandran To Lead Olivia Hetreed Drama ‘Song Of The Sun God’

Bridgerton season two star Charithra Chandran has landed the lead in Olivia Hetreed drama Song of the Sun God, Deadline can reveal.

Chandran, who broke out as Edwina Sharma in the second season of Shonda Rhimes smash Netflix regency drama and starred in Prime Video’s Alex Rider, will also associate produce the six-parter, which is based on Shankari Chandran’s novel and is being produced by The Cry indie Synchronicity Films and Australia’s Photoplay Films. Cineflix Rights has boarded as creative and financing partner, with first option on exclusive worldwide distribution.

Girl With the Pearl Earring writer Hetreed’s adaptation follows the love, lies and misdemeanours of a Sri Lankan family across three generations in the UK, Australia and Sri Lanka. Chandran will play Leela, a young Australian woman living her life in London, largely disconnected from her own culture and unaware of long-held family secrets. But an intensely personal and dangerous journey takes her across three continents as she seeks to find her lost aunt and uncover the shocking reason for her disappearance.

Author Shankari Chandran is creative consultant on the project and executive producers are Claire Mundell for Synchronicity and Karen Radzyner for Photoplay. The latter was initially producing for her previous company Dragonet but took the project with her when she moved.

The show suits Synchronicity’s “drive and passion for adapting powerful and important books for the screen,” said Mundel. The company is also producing Andrew O’Hagan adaptation Mayflies for the BBC along with a version of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

“Shankari Chandran’s novel is a poignant, and deeply moving story of the Sri Lankan conflict seen through the prism of one family,” she added. “With its timely and universal themes, we feel the project will resonate with global audiences. We are excited that Charithra is both joining the cast and the producing team.”

Charithra Chandran is repped by Jonathan Arun Group in the UK and Gersh in the U.S., along with Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham. Deadline revealed in June that she will star in rom-com podcast A Mid-Semester Night’s Dream.