Deepa Mehta to adapt 'Funny Boy' on screen

Filmmaker Deepa Mehta's next film is an adaptation of Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Shyam Selvadurai's "Funny Boy".

First published in 1994, the book chronicles six poignant stories of a boy coming to age within a wealthy Tamil family in Colombo.

Between the ages of seven and fourteen, he explores his sexual identity, and encounters the Sinhala-Tamil tensions leading up to the 1983 riots.

"I am going to start shooting for a film from January called 'Funny Boy'. It's based on Shyam Selvadurai's book. It's a really lovely, coming-of-age story with a Sri Lankan setting," Mehta said.

The director, whose previous works like "Earth" and "Midnights Children" were also book adaptations, said it's hard for her not to visualise books cinematically while she's reading.

"I love adapting books. There are some books which are cinematic and there are some which aren't. When I read a book, I keep visualising it. Words come to life, you form images and sometimes I can even see who's acting in it."