Midnight's Children OK'd by Indian film board

Deepa Mehta and Salman Rushdie's adaptation of Midnight's Children is finally headed for wide release in India where the magic realism epic is set after being approved by the country's film censor board.

India's Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) approved the dramatic film's release on Thursday, giving it an "adults only" rating.

Indo-Canadian Mehta expressed her excitement online via her Twitter account, posting "India here we come intact."

The Toronto filmmaker added that the censor board has not requested any footage be edited before the release.

Rushdie, whose Booker Prize-winning novel is the basis of the film, wrote the screenplay. He also noted the censor board's approval of Midnight's Children and commented about a potential January opening.

The Indo-British author's acclaimed 1981 novel was considered "unfilmable" for years.However, after Mehta and Rushdie became friends, they decided to work on adapting the storyset against the partition erafor film. Mehta has said that Rushdie initially sold her the film rights for $1 to help kick start the project.

Midnight's Children explores the origins of modern India through the story of special individuals born at the exact moment the country gained independence from England. The movie has made the rounds at several film festivals, includingin Toronto in Septemberand at India's International Film Festival of Kerala earlier this month.

The film opened in Canada in Novemberand opens in the U.K. this month.A theatrical release in India had not been previously confirmed.

In the past, both Mehta and Rushdie have sparked controversy.

The filmmaker has been targeted by religious fundamentalists during past Indian film shoots for broaching topics such as homosexuality, interfaith relationships and the plight of widows. For her Oscar-nominated film Water, she was forced to move her production to Sri Lanka where Midnight's Children was eventually shot.

Author Rushdie famously lived in hiding for a decade afterhaving having a fatwa issued against himby then Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeni following the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which remains banned in India. He wrote about the difficult periodin his memoir Joseph Anton, released in September.