Editorial: It's not too late for Midnight's Children

The première of Midnight's Children at the Toronto Film Festival has had some people wondering why it's taken so long for Salman Rushdie's Booker prize-winning epic to make it to the screen. After all, the book came out in 1980, scooped a lot of prizes and has been accorded classic status ever since. Why a 32-year gap – given the lightning speed with which most blockbusters transfer from book to film form these days?

The answer in this case is India's continuing sensitivities over the complex subject matter, which sank a BBC attempt to turn the book into a TV series two decades ago, and mean that the film still lacks an Indian distributor.

Writer's note. If you hanker for your oeuvres to get the Hollywood treatment, don't set them in hyper-sensitive countries that make it impossible for anyone to film them – unless, that is, you want the clock to keep ticking.