Maruti’s story is about more than the car that put India on wheels. For Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartik D Nishandar, it is a story of the common man, the making of modern India and a dream that was once met with scepticism overseas. The duo, who are adapting The Maruti Story, based on the book by R C Bhargava, have secured the book rights as well as the life rights of Bhargava, the rights of Suzuki Motors and those of its late chairman Osamu Suzuki. Produced by Baran, Nishandar and Jyoti Deshpande of Jio Studios, the series is being developed as a character-driven drama and not a documentary chronicling the company’s milestones. “We wanted to tell the story of India’s common man. What better than the Maruti story, around which the common man’s journey has grown? India has grown around it, and places like Gurgaon have grown around it. Maruti is responsible for where Gurgaon is today. It was a no-man’s land, and they built a housing complex there and brought in Delhi Public School, among other things, for the common man. We want to tell stories that impact the common man’s thought process and allow people to see themselves in the characters,” says Nishandar.

The makers acquired the book rights in 2022, but securing the material needed for a screen adaptation was a considerably longer exercise. The process involved negotiating the book rights, individual character rights and personality rights, which took eight to nine months. They had secured the rights around three-and-a-half to four years ago, says Nishandar, and have since spent considerable time developing the screenplay. “Even if you take the book rights, it does not mean you have the right to tell everyone’s story or talk about every person in it. It is imperative to acquire the rights for the names you are going to use, unless they are in the public domain. The book rights, character rights and individual personality rights are all very important. You have to be convinced as makers before you put your money behind a subject. We were convinced that we wanted to tell the common man’s story, and that is what drove us. We got life rights of R C Bhargava, along with rights from Suzuki Motor Corporation and Osamu Suzuki,” Singgh says.