Q&A with Nisha Parti, the HeyDay Film Assistant Who First Read “Harry Potter”

by · May 26, 2016

Harry Potter’s journey, from Rowling’s first idea to a world wide phenomenon, is lined with amazing stories of chance and opportunity. One such legend is the story of how HeyDay Films discovered Harry Potter, of how David Heyman’s assistant took home an unpublished children’s novel from the low priority shelf one weekend and returned the following Monday with glowing praise and a determination to help get the film made.

The assistant in question was Nisha Parti, now an independent film producer in her own right and a BAFTA Rising Star of 2013. This past week she joined Industrial Scripts in London for its monthly live Insider Interviews to offer her insights into the film industry.

Confident and straight-talking, Nisha Parti spoke frankly about her career to date and the cost of making it as a film-maker while also providing invaluable insight for aspiring writers, directors, and producers. And obviously, she discussed Potter!

After a Master’s in Film Production and stints at a talent agency and international film company, New Line Productions, Parti applied to be a secretary for an unknown British producer. The producer had signed a two-year deal with Warner. Bros and was looking to adapt a film from any novel he could get his hands on. The producer in question was, of course, David Heyman.

After a rigorous interview process, Parti secured the job with Heyman and then spent the next two years running around London with him, organizing meetings, booking tables at the Ivy, and reading books. Lots of books. After some time, a manuscript by a debut writer arrived from Bloomsbury Publishing and sat on the low priority shelf for a few weeks before Nisha finally took it home.

Unsurprisingly to any Potter fan now, Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone hooked Nisha from the start, finding herself drawn in by the caricatures of the Dursley family and being reminded of her favorite Roald Dahl books. Entirely taken by the smart writing, Parti immediately saw the book as a film and badgered Heyman to have a read over the ensuing weeks. And yet, despite being the one who potentially got the ball rolling on one of the largest franchises in history, Parti is incredibly humble about the experience. She defies anyone to have been in her position, and reading the book at that time, to have not considered it worth adapting to the big screen.

This attitude, and compete lack of complacency, is a through-line in Parti’s work. Knowing from the start of her career that she wished to produce, and that she wouldn’t be able to get to that level on Harry Potter, Parti departed from HeyDay after working on just the first film. And after a few years spent producing high-profile music videos, Parti went solo, forming her own film company that would focus on a topic close to her heart.

From her debut film, Honour, to the numerous projects she currently has in the works, Parti wishes to use her position and skills as a producer to tell the stories that aren’t being told and nurturing talent that may otherwise go unnoticed.

And while this goal is challenging in an overwhelmingly white industry – data released in 2014 revealed that only 5% of speaking roles in the top 100 grossing movies of that year were played by Asian actors – something about Parti suggests she may just achieve it and leave an impressive mark on the industry.

For further updates from the Q&A, check out the MuggleNet Live Twitter account. The full transcript will be posted on Industrial Scripts’s website here.