Emmy nomination for docu series on Pulitzer-winning book

KOLKATA: When Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee had won the Pulitzer prize in 2011 for ‘Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies’, his Delhi-based parents had initially no clue how prestigious this honour was. A similar kind of reaction awaited them when they first heard that a documentary series based on the same book has bagged an Emmy nomination this year. The news has slowly sunk in.Today, Siddhartha’s parents — Sibeswar and Chandana — have managed to cull as much information about the Emmy from the media avalanche that succeeded the announcement. They are now eagerly waiting for their son to arrive in India on August 5 for a three-day trip before leaving for London.
Chandana first got the news of the Emmy nomination when her daughter, Ranu, uploaded the information online. “When Siddhartha had won the Pulitzer and the Padmasri, Siddhartha had called up in the middle of the night to share the news. But this time around, I got to know the news from my daughter. We are glad that so much has followed after writing one book,” she says.
The senior Mukherjee couple is now aware that the six-hour programme based and titled after their son’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book is among five nominees for the award for documentary or nonfiction series. Chandana has already watched the six hour-long documentary on YouTube. She knows that the three-part series that was beamed on PBS was presented by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
It was in January this year that Siddhartha had come to India. “Every six months, he comes to meet us in India. This time around, he will be in town for three nights and a day,” she says. Mukherjee seniors have also planned a party on August 7 to celebrate their 50th marriage anniversary where both their son and daughter will be present. “However, we will miss our daughter-in-law, Sarah Sze, and our son-in-law, Sanjay Bhattacharya,” she says. Their Chinese-American ‘bouma’ is a renowned sculptor and contemporary artist as well as MacArthur Fellow. “Sarah has a big show coming up and is busy with that. My ‘jamai’ has just joined as the ambassador of Egypt and hence, can’t make it either. Two years ago, we went to the US. Work on this series was in progress then,” Chandana says, a lot happy with the nomination and a little tense over whether this series will eventually win the coveted award.
Back in Kolkata, Siddhartha’s relatives are happy. Author Nabaneeta Deb Sen, who knew Siddhartha since his childhood, is thrilled with the news. “He was a naughty child but exceptionally talented. He used to sing and paint well. Of course, he is a brilliant writer. I used to always say ‘Bumba (Siddhartha’s pet name) ekdin kore dyakhabe’. I am not surprised that this series has won an Emmy nomination. Many doctors and survivors have written on cancer. But his approach is so different. As an Indian, as a Bengali, I feel so proud of him.”
What’s making Chandana even more excited is the prospect of her son’s second book. “All I know is that he is writing something on Alzheimer’s disease. The feeling of holding a book once it is released is like holding a baby. I remember that feeling when Bumba had handed the copy of his first book to me. I had been associated with it even when he was writing it. He would narrate stories and even show me the manuscript,” Chandana informs.
Come October and Chandana will experience a similar feeling again. First a Pulitzer, now an Emmy nomination with a Padmasri in between, what more can the proud parents want for their New York-based oncologist son? “It’s nice to see that he has created his own space,” she replies. Don’t they want him to permanently settle down in India? “It’s difficult to uproot himself completely,” she answers, adding, “When Siddhartha left from India, all we told him that he should always work with his head held now. As parents, we are glad that he has been able to continue doing that.”