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Shrabani Basu, author of book that was adapted as Victoria & Abdul, on why Dench was apt to play Queen
Judi Dench and Ali Fazal in Victoria & Abdul
Shrabani Basu
As for the part of Karim, Basu is glad she got Ali Fazal to add charm to the role of Victoria's confidant. "He is far more handsome than Karim was. They [Fazal and Dench] shared a good chemistry. Also, the film had to be realistic, and charm viewers. So I was only happy [that he played the part]. People point out to scenes that they feel were not reality. However, a lot of the small anecdotes in the film have, in fact, been taken from my book. They were true. Even though cinema affords one creative liberties, I would say 85 per cent of the film was based on the book."
Basu speaks of the precision employed in curating the costumes and zeroing in on the "beautiful" locations with childlike enthusiasm. "Also, it is a popular [here, commercial] film, which means it reached out to more people. It was not a small production that only a few got to see. I'm glad that the story of the Queen's aide, and that she learnt Urdu, reached everyone."
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