Charlie Hunnam on ‘Shantaram’ series: ‘To get to the light you have to get through the dark’

Gregory David Roberts’s 2003 novel Shantaram was originally meant to be a film starring Johnny Depp and directed by Mira Nair. The 1980s-set bestseller about Australian fugitive Lin Ford, who lands in Mumbai and meets a colourful cast of characters with whom he makes life-changing connections, is now a web series on Apple TV+.

Shantaram stars Charlie Hunnam as Lin, Antonia Desplat (Karla), Alyy Khan (Qasim Ali), Alexander Siddig (Khader Khan) and Shubham Saraf (Prabhu). Three of 12 episodes will be released on Apple TV+ on October 14.

The show has been created by Steve Lightfoot and Eric Warren Singer and directed by Bharat Nalluri, Iain MacDonald and Bronwen Hughes. Hunnam, who is also one of the producers, spent four days with Roberts in Jamaica, where the author now lives.

“I know how popular this book was, I read it myself several times and know what a magnificent role Lin is,” the actor from Sons of Anarchy and The Lost City of Z told Scroll.in during an interview.

“I was intimidated and filled with fear at the prospect, even though I felt I knew him,” Hunnam added. “I hung out with Greg and it was exactly the confidence boost I needed. We would go around Jamaica a little bit, and everyone thought we were father and son. We talked for 22 hours straight for four days, with little sleep. At the end of which I felt I now get to play my pal, as opposed to somebody who was writ large and felt very daunting.”

Hunnam’s preparations began as a producer, which involved three years of development. “I spent so much time fighting with the other creative forces, particularly the studio on how Lin was going to be shown in the first season, that I had to excavate it time and time again in the sense of who I thought Lin was and the only way I could see him,” Hunnam said. “I had to defend it so many times and so vigorously that by the time we actually got to the acting work, I realised I had done everything. Anything more and I would have overcooked it.”

While love and redemption are major themes in the book, Hunnam believes redemption is not absolute. “You can be redeemed in the morning and have totally messed it up by lunchtime,” he observed. “So, for me, the story is that of a journey, of exploring duality and understanding that to get the light, you have to get through the dark.”

The Covid-19 pandemic prevented Shantaram from being shot entirely in India. Hunnam did film some of the early episodes in Mumbai, Bhopal and Indore over 2019.

“In one version we did just the first episodes and then we changed a few elements before we went on to shoot the rest of the show,” Hunnam said. “We shot that first iteration in Bhopal, Mumbai and Indore. So, leading up to that I had spent a lot of time in India, creating a relationship for myself and getting to know it. Then we had pretty hectic, labour-intensive shoots in India towards the end of 2019.

Mumbai of the 1980s was recreated in Bangkok, while the beachfront portions were shot in Melbourne.

“It’s sort of cliched, but I had this experience every day where I would experience everything that life has to offer in the course of a day,” Hunnam said about working in India. “I saw things that broke my heart, where I would be wailing inconsolably in the street, and then 20 minutes later see the absolute opposite – the most extraordinary, pure expression of love, generosity or kindness. It’s life in Technicolour. That unfortunately diminished since I came back from India, but at the time I was pregnant with this sense of life.”

Hunnam conducts what he calls “a private smile test” when he visits cities. He smiles 10 times, for example, and counts the number of smiles that get reciprocated. “In London in summer, for instance, the ratio is two is to 10 smiles, so 20 per cent, whereas in winter it is about 0.5 per cent. In Los Angeles, we have a high smile ratio of about 40 percent but in India it’s 10/10. Most of the time, Indians beat me to the smile. That’s like the greatest endorsement of a place I could give.”

For Hunnam’s co-star Shubham Saraf, who plays Prabhu, India was more familiar. The British actor, who has been in the shows Bodyguard, A Suitable Boy and Criminal: UK, was born in Kolkata.“I had read the book when I was 15, on a plane to Mumbai actually and I remember thinking I have never read someone who actually understands what it means to be in Bombay and India. I devoured the book and Prabhu was one of my favourite characters,” Saraf said during the video interview. “When we started working on the show, I just tried to have the time of my life, which is what I think Prabhu was doing, and I hope he came out of my mouth one word at a time.”

Saraf recalled one scene in particular in which Lin meets Prabhu for the first time. “That was one of my first times on the Colaba set and there we were in the middle of Bangkok. Hundreds of people were screaming in Hindi and it was packed with rickshaws, taxis and vegetable sellers, and I just forgot where the camera was. I was trying to make my way through the street without getting hit, while speaking to Charlie. As far as I know Mumbai, it felt authentic. I was sad I wasn’t able to shoot in India though. It would have definitely added another dimension.”

“I had read the book when I was 15, on a plane to Mumbai actually and I remember thinking I have never read someone who actually understands what it means to be in Bombay and India. I devoured the book and Prabhu was one of my favourite characters,” Saraf said during the video interview. “When we started working on the show, I just tried to have the time of my life, which is what I think Prabhu was doing, and I hope he came out of my mouth one word at a time.”

Saraf recalled one scene in particular in which Lin meets Prabhu for the first time. “That was one of my first times on the Colaba set and there we were in the middle of Bangkok. Hundreds of people were screaming in Hindi and it was packed with rickshaws, taxis and vegetable sellers, and I just forgot where the camera was. I was trying to make my way through the street without getting hit, while speaking to Charlie. As far as I know Mumbai, it felt authentic. I was sad I wasn’t able to shoot in India though. It would have definitely added another dimension.”

The cast hopes that they will be able to return to India if a second season is greenlit. “India is one of the biggest characters in the show,” Hunnam said. “Everyone tried crazy hard to do India justice from afar, but it would be very exciting if we get to come and shoot season two.”