Dinesh Vijan acquires rights of Anuja Chauhan's 'Club You To Death', plans to turn it to a star-studded murder mystery franchise

Producer Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films has acquired the audiovisual rights of author Anuja Chauhan's sixth book, murder mystery "Club You To Death". Vijan, who has backed films like "Stree", "Hindi Medium" and this year's "Roohi", said he wanted to acquire the book because of its "entertaining, funny and deliciously twisted story."

"The story also offers a great opportunity for me to set it in modern-day India and turn the lens on ourselves and our society a little bit. What really attracted me to this, however, was that even while dealing with a real-world murder, Anuja has managed to have her trademark humour and romance at its heart," Vijan said in a statement.

Chauhan's novel, which came out earlier this year, traces the murder of a personal trainer at the posh Delhi Turf Club (DTC), which at first is thought to be a freak accident, but soon becomes clear that one of the members of the DTC is a cold-blooded killer.

"As the capital bristles with speculation and conspiracy theories, crime branch veteran ACP Bhavani Singh is appointed to investigate the case," the book's synopsis read.

Chauhan, whose 2008 novel "The Zoya Factor" was made into a film starring Sonam Kapoor and Dulquer Salmaan, said she is happy that the book's rights have been acquired by Maddock Films.

"I am so happy to share that after a pretty hectic 'swayamvar' involving various leading studios, audio-visual rights to my sixth novel 'Club You To Death' have been obtained by Maddock films. I have been a huge fan of their work for a long time now and feel their sensibilities fit CYTD perfectly," the author said.

According to the press release, Vijan plans to turn the book into a star-studded murder mystery franchise on the lines of the acclaimed 2019 thriller "Knives Out".