Meet Tanya Maniktala, The Star Of BBC Drama A Suitable Boy

Now that we’ve finished watching all of Normal People and I May Destroy You – our two major lockdown TV crushes – we’re in need of a new show to fill our time. Enter A Suitable Boy, a new adaptation of the Vikram Seth novel. Featuring an all-Indian cast, the BBC One adaptation has already won critical acclaim following its debut this week. But who’s in the cast, and who plays lead character Lata Mehra?

Who is in the A Suitable Boy cast?

If you’re a fan of Bollywood films, you mayu spot some familiar faces. Namit Das, Ishaan Khatter and Tabu are all among the cast. It’s directed by Mira Nair with Andrew Davies responsible for the script.

Who plays Lata Mehra in A Suitable Boy?

Lata is played by young actress Tanya Maniktala. You’d be forgiven for not recognising her, considering that she is almost completely new to acting. Her only other screen role is that of Ishita in web series Flames.

Lata is the main character in the show, and the book that inspired it. A university student in North India, Lata ‘s mother wants nothing more than for her daughter to find a match with a ‘suitable boy.’ Lata, of course, dreams of more.

‘Lata’s character, I feel, has a lot of shades to it,’ Tanya told Radio Times. ‘She’s very colourful, she’s full of life, she’s a young girl who’s very confident. She’s this young girl who’s on this journey to find herself, and what she wants – in spite of the fact that what her mother might want for her is very different. She chooses what she wants, and she’s only guided by her soul and what her heart says. So that for me is Lata, a very confident girl, not afraid of making mistakes or falling down because she knows she’ll come back stronger.’

Why was she replaced on set?

There was a bit of a blip, as is wont to happen on sets! According to Mira, a minor accident meant that Tanya required a body double. ‘For a brief moment, Tanya had sprained her ankle and could act beautifully but could not stand up and could not walk’, she told press. ‘This was a challenge I had not yet experienced for a heroine who is virtually in every scene. So, luckily, the second assistant director had the same body structure as Tanya.’

Phew.

A Suitable Boy is on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm

READ MORE::a[As A New Book Claims Meghan Markle 'Set Up Photo Opportunities With Paparazzi', Do Celebrities Actually Do That?]{href='https://graziadaily.co.uk/celebrity/news/coleen-rooney-rebekah-vardy-celebrities-sell-stories/' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}