Movies on Ramanujan : A list

Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematical genius who lived a short but remarkable life is becoming a man of interest to movie makers across the world. Although not known to many but Ramanujan holds the reputation of being one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Here is a list of movie projects that are intended to portray Ramnujan’s life. 

1.   “A First Class Man”  by Roger Spottiswoode

Spotiswoode who is best known for directing the James Bond movie – ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ will make a movie on Ramanujan’s amazing friendship with his mentor G.H. Hardy.

The friendship was rather interesting because it was Hardy only who showed him to the world and Ramanujan could have died unrecognized if Hardy didn’t see a genius in him. Their friendship started with a series of letters, subjected to mathematics and later paved Ramanujan’s way to London and become a world renowned mathematician. Spottiswoode took inspiration from tribeca- winning play by American writer David Freeman, which is titled “A First Class Man”.

Actor Siddharth of rang de basanti fame will play the role of Ramanujan.

2.  Mathew Brown to direct Dev Patel starrer movie on Ramanujan

Producer Edward R Pressman is teaming up with Prashita Chaudhary for the production of an international biopic on the mathematician. Dev Patel of slumdog millionaire fame will be playing the role of Ramanujan. Pressman has acquired the rights of Ramanujan’s famous biography “the man who knew infinity: the life of the genius Ramanujan” written by Robert Kanigel. Mathew Brown is set to direct the movie and the project is expected to start in September,2013.

3. Stephen Fry and Dev Benegal

The third Ramanujan movie will be directed by actor and Cambridge graduate Stephen Fry with Indian director Dev Benegal.  Benegal having an experience of directing “English”, ”August” , “Split wide open” will shoot  the the UK parts of the movie, while famous actor and novelist Fry will shoot the Indian parts. This in fact is going to be a multi million project with an expected budget of $20m.  The production will show a mutual cooperation of India and England. The star cast is not signed yet, but Fry himself can play the role of G.H. Hardy.

4. National award winning director Gnana Rajasekaran’s project

Rajasekaran is also planning an ambitious project on Ramanujan’s life. The movie is scheduled to release on September this year.  Abhinay, the grandson of famous actor Gemini Ganesan and wife Savitri will be playing the role of Ramanujan. The star cast also include Malyali actress Bhamma to play Ramanujan’s wife and Suhasini Maniratnam as his mother.  The film will be shot at different locations in India and England.

Why Ramanujan…

Ramanujan ‘s life was filled with unpredictable incidents and these were the  unseen happenings that actually governed the course of his rather interesting life. Born on 1887 at Erode (now in Tamilnadu), he was a prodigy at mathematics and is said to have calculated the length of equator himself when he was a child. Later as a student he won many accolades due to his extraordinary skills in maths but could not get any university degree because he failed in other subjects, which was obviously due to his indulgence in mathematics. He found a job as a clerk with a meager salary of rupees 25 a month but fear of dying unnoticed led him to write letters to mathematicians across the world, his letters however were recognized only by G.H. Hardy and J.E. Littlewood. Hardy took a keen interest in him and later arranged for his visit at London. Even this wasn’t the end of troubles for him, it is not largely known but Ramanujan once attempted suicide by throwing himself in front of a train but fortunately the miraculous stopping of train just a few feet ahead of him saved his life. The reason for this is sometimes accounted to the depression he was facing due to his staying away from home. However Hardy always proved to be a true friend to him.

There are so many incidents that are quoted about their friendship. Ramanujan always trusted him and Hardy considered Ramanujan a genius of the highest class. Hardy once remarked that on a scale of 100 he would have put himself on 25 but Ramanujan on 100.

One more famous incident is the ‘Hardy- Ramanujan Number’ incident, when Ramanujan was in a hospital Hardy came to visit him and as a greeting remarked to him that he has ridden in a taxi number 1729 which seemed dull to him, But Ramanujan differed and said that it is a rather interesting number as it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways, and it really was; see: 1729= 1³+12³= 9³+10³ . This shows that every number held significance for Ramanujan. Such was the genius of this man that sometimes it is suspected that he had a contact with aliens.

Click to buy Srinivasa  Ramanujan's famous biography:
"THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY"

Here is a link to Ramanujan’s famous biography ‘The man who knew infinity’ written by Robert Kanigel: