The story of Noor Inayat Khan, the Indian princess who worked as a British spy in the Second World War, will be told in a coming limited television series starring Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto.
Entitled Spy Princess, the series will be directed by Girl With A Pearl Earring filmmaker Anand Tucker. Screenwriter Olivia Hetreed has penned the script, based on the book Spy Princess, the Life of Noor Inayat Khan. The book's author, Shrabani Basu, will also serve as a consultant in the series.
In an Instagram post announcing the project, Pinto wrote that "at a time in this world where we are all looking for leadership and courage to guide and lead us all back to some semblance of sanity and order, I take great comfort in the quiet strength, grace, intelligence and grit that Noor Inayat Khan possessed in the face of chaos during WW2."
She described Khan as an underdog who was initially brushed off as “not overburdened with brains” but ended up being recruited to join the Special Operations Executive aiding the French resistance against the Nazi occupying forces.
The daughter of an Indian Sufi spiritual leader and direct descendant of the 18th century Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan, Khan became known as "Madeleine of the Resistance" and was credited for holding together the Paris resistance through some of the darkest hours of the war.
She was captured by the Gestapo during her mission but, despite being tortured for information, gave nothing away. She was eventually transferred to the Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed in 1944 at the age of 30. In 1949, she was posthumously awarded the George Cross, Britain’s highest civilian award for bravery.
According to online news site Deadline, the series's producer Claire Ingham, founder of the production company Red Room Films, initiated the project after discovering a photograph of Khan in uniform.
Pinto, who also serves as an executive producer in the series, told Deadline that she was thrilled for the opportunity to play Khan, who she described as "a fierce and amazing woman, the most unlikely heroine of World War II."
“Sending women to the front line is controversial even now,” Pinto said. “Then it was unthinkable. Sending a Sufi mystic, who won’t use a gun, daughter of a long-haired Indian Guru who preaches love and peace – ridiculous! But Noor thrives, not in spite of her differences, but because of them. Her struggle to reconcile her values with the desire to find her own path and with her complex sense of duty is something I am so excited to explore and to recreate.”