Making the Gandhi Series: Hansal Mehta & Sameer Nair on Challenges, Casting, and TIFF Premiere

TIFF World Premiere Experience

• 💡 The Gandhi series had its world premiere at TIFF, an overwhelming experience for director Hansal Mehta, marking his third time at the festival.
• 🎯 This is noted as the first Indian series to be selected and premiere at TIFF, making it a significant milestone for the team.
• 👏 Hansal Mehta felt this project was a destined work, reflecting on his career leading up to telling Gandhi's story.

Collaborative Production & Vision

• 🤝 Sameer Nair is credited as a co-creator, nurturing ideas and enabling the ambitious project, a rare blend of audacity and ambition in a rigid industry.
• 🔑 Applause Entertainment, part of the Gandhian Birla group, initiated the project, basing it on Ramachandra Guha's books and ensuring a collaborative process with Hansal Mehta's team.
• ✅ The production involved iterations and close collaboration, building on previous successful partnerships like "Scam."

Recreating Gandhi's World

• 🌍 The series involved humongous undertaking with massive sets, recreating 1800s London streets with gravel and horse carriages, and transforming Film City Mumbai into South Africa.
• 🎭 The production required 300-400 extras daily in period costumes, with a phenomenal production team including BAFTA-nominated costume designer Pia Benegal.
• 🏗️ The team used a mix of real locations and built sets, including running trams and carriages constructed from scratch, with budgets managed to a 4-5% variation.

Pratik Gandhi's On-Set Injury

• ⚠️ During a rehearsal for a scene where Pratik Gandhi was to appear naked, he suffered a severe wrist injury, with the bone visible.
• 🏥 The team faced a nightmare at an NHS center in a small UK town, waiting 7 hours as his injury was not deemed an emergency since he walked in on his own.
• 💪 An Indian doctor, a fan of Pratik's work, provided a temporary stitch-up, and Pratik continued filming major action sequences while in significant pain, requiring plastic surgery later.

Series Scope & Casting

• 📚 The series is designed as a three-part structure, with the first eight-episode season covering Gandhi's life from 1888 to 1915, based on "Gandhi Before India" by Ramachandra Guha.
• 🎬 Casting was a priority, with Hansal Mehta believing it's over three-quarters of a director's job, involving extensive search with Mukesh Chabra and Shakira.
• ✨ The cast includes international actors like Tom Felton, James Murray (playing Jan Smuts), and Jonno Davis, alongside Indian talents, with Rohini Hattangadi's son playing Dada Abdullah.
• ⏳ The first season is nearing completion of post-production and music, with platform screenings planned in the coming months, and development for the next season already underway.