Latest in Victoria & Abdul

A big day for my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side as true movie and stage royalty Dame Judi Dench came by for an in-depth conversation about her life, career and the current film that has put her back on the awards circuit to which she is so accustomed. With Victoria & Abdul, she has already received Best…

A big day for my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side as true movie and stage royalty Dame Judi Dench came by for an in-depth conversation about her life, career and the current film that has put her back on the awards circuit to which she is so accustomed. With Victoria & Abdul, she has already received Best…

"It wasn't just a teacher and a student," Ali Fazal says of the previously almost unknown relationship between a young Muslim clerk from India and Queen Victoria revealed in Victoria & Abdul. "It was love, it was friendship." Joining Oscar winner Judi Dench for another performance as Victoria, the Bollywood star and F…

The basis for Stephen Frears’ historical drama Victoria & Abdul is Shrabani Basu’s book of the same name. It stemmed, most improbably, from a side project in which the author was investigating the history of curries — something she relayed at Deadline’s inaugural The Contenders London. “I knew that Queen Victoria…

After debuting at Venice and Toronto in September, Stephen Frears' playful period drama Victoria & Abdul surprised absolutely no one by immediately becoming one of the awards-buzz titles of the season, scoring a cool $9.4m on release in its native UK. With Oscar-nominated Mrs. Brown star Dame Judi Dench reprising that…

Three big titles, based on true stories and likely factoring in this year's awards race, are opening a very busy weekend of Specialty newcomers. Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in Fox Searchlight's Battle Of the Sexes, following its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. Also out of that festival is David Gordon Green's…

The little-known story of Queen Victoria and her beloved Indian servant Abdul Karim was once so little-known that Shrabani Basu, author of the 2010 non-fiction biography Victoria & Abdul, spent three days searching the graveyards of Agra in Utter Pradesh in order to find Karim’s final resting place. Happily, thanks to…

Dame Judi Dench, even in her sleep, could probably play any British Queen, especially Victoria, but as she proves in Stephen Frears’ latest royal delight Victoria & Abdul, she seems to be finding new avenues to bring history alive. An Oscar winner as a Queen in Shakespeare In Love and a Best Actress nominee for Mrs. Br…