MUMBAI: Ruskin Bond is making his first appearance on silver screen in Vishal Bharadwaj‘s Saat Khoon Maaf, based on his own novel titled ‘Susanna‘s Seven Husbands’.

An Indian author of British origin, Bond‘s writing has lured several filmmakers into making films of his novels. ‘The Flight of Pigeons,’ for instance, was adapted by Merchant Ivory films to make the Shashi Kapoor-starrer Junoon. This is the second time that Bhardwaj is adapting Bond‘s book, the first being Blue Umbrella.

In the film, Bond will star opposite Priyanka Chopra. In one scene, he has to give her a peck on the cheek. The director says the cene took quite a few retakes "because he is very shy.‘‘

This is not the first time a writer has appeared on screen. Bhisham Shahani, who wrote ‘Tamas’, played an important character in Govind Nihalani‘s adaptation into a tele series. Even Salman Rushdie did a cameo in both Bridget Jone‘s Diary as well as Then She Found Me. Urdu writer Ismat Chugtai featured in Merchant Ivory‘s Junoon while Arundhati Roy featured in Massey Sahib, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones and Electric Moon.