What Links Srijit Mukherji, Sherlock Holmes?

'Elementary, My Dear Holmes imagines Arthur Conan Doyle stepping into his own fiction, a man haunted by the clarity he created, forced to apply it to a world far messier than the one on paper.'

IMAGE: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Photograph: Kind courtesy Wikipedia Commons

National Award-winning filmmaker Srijit Mukherji is set to direct a feature film based on the life of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes, reported Variety, the American movie trade magazine.

Elementary, My Dear Holmes has secured backing from the Conan Doyle estate as associate producer, with Shahnaab Alam producing through London-based Invisible Thread Media and Mukherji's Matchcut Productions handling the India side.

The movie will be set in 1906 London, where the narrative finds Doyle grappling with personal turmoil, including his dying wife's wish for him to marry another woman, while becoming embroiled in the case of George Edalji, a man of Indian descent wrongfully convicted.

The story will also touch upon the plight of Oscar Slater, another victim of judicial injustice, highlighting Doyle's real-world application of detective skills reminiscent of his famous Sherlock Holmes.

Photograph: Kind courtesy Amazon.com

'I first met Sherlock Holmes as a boy, not in Baker Street, but in the quiet between pages,' Mukherji said.

'Elementary, My Dear Holmes imagines Doyle stepping into his own fiction, a man haunted by the clarity he created, forced to apply it to a world far messier than the one on paper,' Mukherji added, as quoted by Variety.

The co-production is being structured under the existing UK-India Co-Production Treaty, administered by the British Film Institute and India's National Film Development Corporation.