Farrukh Dhondy


Farrukh Dhondy is an Indian-born British writer, playwright, screenwriter and left-wing activist of Parsi descent, who resides in the United Kingdom.

Education

Dhondy attended The Bishop's School, Poona, and obtained a BSc degree from the University of Poona. He won a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge where he read Natural Sciences before switching to English, earning a BA degree in 1967. After graduating he studied for a master's degree at Leicester University and was later a lecturer at Leicester College of Further Education and Archbishop Temple School in Lambeth in London.

Early activism

In Leicester, Dhondy became involved with the Indian Workers' Association and later, in London, with the British Black Panthers, joining the publication Race Today in 1970, along with his close friend Darcus Howe, and former partner Mala Sen, and discovering his calling as a writer. In his role as an activist and academic, he came to be associated with black and left-wing intellectuals and activists such as Stuart Hall and Trevor Phillips. Uncharacteristically, it is also from this period that his close friendship with the conservative author and Nobel Laureate Sir V. S. Naipaul dates.

Writing

Dhondy's literary output is extensive, including books for children, textbooks and biographies, as well as plays for theatre and scripts for film and television. He is also a columnist, a biographer, and media executive, having been Commissioning Editor at Channel Four from 1984 to 1997. During his time with Channel Four, he wrote the comedy series Tandoori Nights for the channel, which concerned the rivalry of two curry house owners.
His children's stories include KBW , a study of a young white boy's response to anti-Bengali racism. In 2011 Dhondy published his translation of selections from the Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, Rumi: a New Translation. He also wrote the screenplay for the Bollywood historical blockbuster Mangal Pandey, starring Aamir Khan and Toby Stephens. In 2012, he scripted a short film called The K File. This film dealt with a fictional take on the judgement of Ajmal Kasab and was directed by Oorvazi Irani. In 2013 his play Devdas was premiered in London and was subsequently replayed globally. 2013 also saw the publication of the novel Prophet Of Love. His collection of Rumi translations was published in 2014 and received a 4.5-star rating on Goodreads.
Dhondy was lauded in the respected political magazine New Internationalist, in its prestigious "final page", which led to the resurgence of his lifelong campaign to recruit more BAME talent at the BBC, with an article subsequently printed in the New Statesman, which was later taken over by actor and comedian Lenny Henry.
In 2015 Dhondy interviewed his close friend V. S. Naipaul in India and in London as part of the Jaipur Literature Festival and his publishers produced a collection of his greatest works in an anthology.

Personal life

Dhondy lives in South East London

Honours and awards