SHANTARAM'S BOMBAY: ONE OF HOPE

CHARLIE HUNNAM is now adept at using a few swear words in Hindi an after-effect of playing the titular role in the series Shantaram. He and SHUBHAM SARAF, who plays Prabhu, tell Shraddha Kamdar how they engaged with the novel and got under the skin of their characters

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The first thing I noticed was the smell. In that first Bombay minute, I didn't recognise it. Now I do. It was the smell of hope." When Lin Ford - who goes on to become Gregory David Roberts's Shantaram - gets off the airplane at Bombay Airport, it is this smell that captivates him. It is a city - its people included, especially his trusted guide Prabhu - that captivates him and keeps him much longer than intended. And who better than global heartthrob Charlie Hunnam to bring this author-backed character to life on our screens? The first season of Shantaram dropped on Apple TV last month, garnering much love from audiences, especially fans who have been waiting 20 long years for a screen adaptation of Roberts's book.

Charlie has a theory about that, on two counts. "First, it is a very demanding piece. We did two versions of it before we got it right. I'm not even sure we got it right, but we are in the process of trying. But we made one version where we definitely didn't (get right), much in the same way that Greg wrote this book's manuscript three times, and the first two copies sort of got destroyed. So, there is something in the DNA of this that demands that the process be a labour," he analyses. Second, he says that, 20 years ago, television wasn't what it is now.