Lifestyle Women & Society Places Digital Vibes Health Offbeat Entertainment World Watch Man Who Knew Infinity Prev Issue Next Issue

The extraordinary story of the Indian math genius who emerged from poverty to inspire generations with ideas that underpin the modern digital age is to become the subject of a new film.

Dev Benegal
© AFP/ANSA/File

British actor and director Stephen Fry and India's Dev Benegal will co-write and direct the film about the largely self-taught Srinivasa Ramanujan who was brought to Cambridge University after a sympathetic don spotted his talent.

Ramanujan arrived in Britain in 1914 and the film will tell of his relationship with one of the world's most prominent mathematicians, G.H. Hardy, which resulted in discoveries that provided the "DNA of digital technology today", said Benegal.

The former clerk's successes also inspired India's first post-independence Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, another former Cambridge scholar, who set up academic institutions to ensure future talented Indians could get the support they needed at home.

The project has already received the blessing of Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who presented the film's makers with a paper he had written on Ramanujan's theories on secure communications in New Delhi this week.

"The mind can never be imprisoned and Ramanujan has shown that even with the barest of resources available he could give so much to the world," he said.

The film is slated to be shot in Tamil Nadu, the southern home state of Ramanujan, and in England.

Stephen Fry
© AFP/File Alessandro Abbonizio

Ramanujan was born in a small village and despite his obvious mathematical skills in analysing complex theorems dropped out of college because he neglected other subjects.

As he struggled to get a job, he sent letters to a series of academics, of whom only Hardy recognised his talent and brought him to Britain where he spent five years.

He was called the "man who knew infinity" even though Hardy first thought a list of mathematical theorems Ramanujan sent him were a hoax.

A sickly man who suffered from tuberculosis, Ramanujan returned to India only in 1919 where he died the following year, aged 33.

Benegal told AFP he had wanted to make a film about Ramanujan since the 1980s when he travelled the length of the south Indian river Kaveri in a boat and went past the places where Ramanujan was born and studied.

But the Indian film industry and backers showed no interest -- thinking it would be a film for the education ministry -- and the project only got off the ground after a chance meeting with Fry in France six months ago.

Fry, well-known among younger generations as the reader of the audiobook versions of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter novels, shared his fascination with the mathematician and the pair started writing the script.

Shooting is planned to start next year and the makers are hoping for a worldwide release.

"It's an incredible story of this journey that this man made who was very unliterate and untutored but had this passion for mathematics," Benegal said.

"When I was growing up in India, he was one of the three significant Indians who represented modern India," along with Nehru and Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, he said.

Nobody has yet been cast in the two key roles, although Fry has not ruled out any of India's Bollywood stars playing the role of Ramanujan in the multi-million dollar budget film.

"We're also looking for a British or American star who can play an English maths don ... who won't let his accent slip," he said.

View and Post comment on this article

© 2005 AFP. All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.