Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto and her Freebird Films Entertainment label have onboarded the animated kids TV show, Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond.
The actress is set to lend her voice to the Moon Maiden, the biological mother to the lead character, Kiranmala.
Additionally, she will executive-produce the series alongside her producing partner Emily Verellen Strom through their Freebird Films banner.
Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond is a TV version of Sayantani DasGupta’s book series. DasGupta will adapt the stories with animation writer veteran and Emmy winner Michael Ryan.
“I can’t wait to bring Kiranmala to life through this series,” Pinto said. “In every project, Freebird Films takes on, we think about how girls and women from every culture are represented and celebrated. Sayantani’s books lift up the lives of South Asian girls and immigrants in such a powerful but relatable way. I would have loved this story as a young girl and we’re thrilled to be a part of it now.”
Published by Scholastic, Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond debuted in 2018 with The Serpent’s Secret.
It won several book awards, with Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond: Game of Stars following in 2019 and entering the New York Times bestseller list.
A third book, Kiranmala & The Kingdom Beyond: The Chaos Curse, published in 2020, while a spin-off series, Force of Fire, published a year, and a third trilogy, The Secrets of the Sky, launched in July last year.
The first book trilogy will be the focus of the TV series.
The story follows a New Jersey 12-year-old girl who discovers she might be a real Indian princess as she is swept into a fantastical world of magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying, talking birds and forced to fight demons and solve riddles to find her lost parents and save the world.
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