| The Bard of Blood | |
| Author: | Bilal Siddiqi |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | India |
| Genre: | Spy thriller |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books and Blue Salt |
| Release Date: | 2015 |
| Media Type: | Print (paperback, hardback) |
| Pages: | 312 |
| Isbn: | 9780143423966 |
The Bard of Blood is a 2015 Indian fictional espionage thriller novel written by debutant author, Bilal Siddiqi.[1] He wrote the novel at the age of 20 during his college days in Mumbai. It was published by Penguin Books.[2]
Kabir Anand is a former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent and is now a professor of Shakespeare in Mumbai. He was forced to leave RAW after a disastrous mission in Balochistan. He is called by the agency to return after Sadiq Sheikh, his ex-boss is killed. Meanwhile, Mullah Omar and the ISI are also after him.
Siddiqi said that he got a "sudden growing interest in the covert world of espionage" at the age of 17 and "the entire talk of jihad and Islamic extremism that plagued every newspaper."[3] He started writing it at the age of 19 and later met Chiki Sarkar, the then Chief Editor of Penguin Books, through Hussain Zaidi whom he had been assisting for a few years. Zaidi had recommended Siddiqui's name to Sarkar. She read the half manuscript and then decided to publish it. It took him "roughly a year" to write the novel.[3]
See main article: Bard of Blood. In November 2017, it was announced that a Netflix original seven-episode series will be made based on the novel, co-produced by Shah Rukh Khan. The screenplay is written by Siddiqui.[4] [5] The cast includes Emraan Hashmi, Vineet Kumar Singh, Kirti Kulhari, Sobhita Dhulipala, Jaideep Ahlawat, Danish Husain, Rajit Kapur and Shishir Sharma.[6]