Translation/adaptation: The vernacular storyworld of Byomkesh Bakshi

This chapter considers multiple iterations of the Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi: in dozens of mid-century Bengali novellas by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, in a popular Doordarshan television serial in the 1990s, and in a big-budget Bollywood blockbuster in 2015. Together, these various versions of Byomkesh create an evolving storyworld where Byomkesh grows from a local, vernacular, hometown hero, to a beloved pan-Indian icon, to an international export and an emblem of Indian popular culture on a global stage. This chapter explores how the contours of Byomkesh's expanding storyworld mobilize the national work/work of the nation that Byomkesh is doing across the decades, with a specific focus on how the nature of that work is shaped by language, setting, and medium.