By Renu Mehta
Toronto
Hansal Mehta series Gandhi was showcased at the Toronto International Film festival (TIFF) on September 5. Gandhi, planned as an 8-episode series of three seasons, was presented at TIFF with the first two episodes from the first season shown to audiences. The series tells the story of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from 1888 to 1950 and attempts to explore his personal journey during that period.
In Season One, we meet Gandhi (played by Pratik Gandhi — no relation) as a young man in India, before he became known as the Mahatma. He’s already married and expecting his first child with his wife Kasturba (played by Bhamini Oza Gandhi, who is married to Pratik in real life). Gandhi dreams of studying law in faraway London. With gentle encouragement from Kasturba, his family agrees to support him, hoping his legal career will lead to a future in local politics.
But once in London, Gandhi’s world begins to shift. He meets Josiah Oldfield (played by Tom Felton from the Harry Potter films), a fellow vegetarian, and starts thinking more deeply about his values and beliefs. Slowly, Gandhi begins to see that his journey isn’t just about law — it’s about something much bigger, both for himself and for India.
Mehta has co-created the series with Sameer Nair as they saw a powerful story in the life of civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi and decided to turn it into a major TV series. In an interview with Renu Mehta, the director of films like Buckingham Murders, Shahid, Faraaz and Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story talks about the series and how he came on board to direct these.
You began your journey with the TV show Khana Khazana. How did that shape your growth in storytelling? Since then, you have directed award winning projects like Shahid, Aligarh and so many other features.
I will always be grateful to Zee TV for that beginning I got. I made a lifelong friend in Sanjiv Kapoor and made my love for food and chefs for making recipes and food. But beyond that, everything that you do are small lessons that you learn along the way and you learn a lot from your failures. It’s like Gandhi. He learns from his own flaws, he confronts his own contradictions. All the work that I have done has been an exploration of me, to find myself.
What inspired you to make the Gandhi series?
Gandhi has been a part of our lives for as long as we remember. He’s the most famous Indian of all times, perhaps the most important person of the 20th century. We wanted to focus on his personal journey. There is a beauty in being able to tell his human story. These are the stories that you live to tell.
What made Pratik Gandhi the right actor to portray the Father of the Nation?
Pratik was already cast before I came on board. The book rights had already been acquired by Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment. We did Scam 1992 together in which Pratik Gandhi was also cast and we saw a lot of success together. So I called up Sameer Nair and told him you’ve got Pratik, you’ve got the books, how come I’m not in it? I almost bulldozed my way into the film
What kind of research was done for this project? How did you ensure that keeping the series historically accurate while maintaining dramatic momentum?
The historical elements were all there in Ramachandra Guha’s book. The book covers everything written about Gandhi and covers records from his life. It’s a very comprehensive collection of his life. My challenge was where you find Mohan – the human in this. There was the search for the personal story. We had a big canvass, but I had to find the personal story.
What was your main focus when you decided to do the series?
It was just dramatized. We can only succeed if we engage and entertain the audience and we wanted to ensure that. All that you expect of an epic is the emotional drama, family drama, inspiration and we tried to keep all that in the storytelling
What was the biggest challenge when you started doing the series?
I actually enjoyed this so much I don’t see anything as a challenge. Every day we were recreating a period, reconstructing a timeline – each stage from writing to pre-production to shooting, post production, music – everywhere, it was at times daunting to achieve something of this scale. But it lead us somewhere and I knew that it deserves nothing more than my complete attention, love and passion.
How did you collaborate with AR Rahman on the score? What moods or themes did you aim to evoke through the music?
I give my people, everyone that I work with a blank canvass. I showed AR Rahman the initial episodes and that’s how he agreed to come on board. And then he asked for a brief for the music and I told him we don’t have one. I told him to interpret it, and left it up to him. However, we both agreed that we will take traditional Indian elements from Gujarat and from Hindustani classical music. We will take elements and we will contemporize it and we will add elements of Western classical, use traditional African instruments.
Beyond that, he would play themes and melodies to me and they all were so beautiful. So he said where these will go. I said – you tell me. Creating the music for this has been the most satisfying and just to be around a maestro like AR Rahman is a privilege. It’s a huge honour. He’s a true artist.
Are you happy with the way the series have come about?
I take as little time as it should take. Every project has to be given the amount of time it needs. Good planning, good preproduction and good post production are important and these things make the entire thing very efficient.
I had a great team and I couldn’t ask for anything better. Ultimately whatever you do is a legacy that you leave for your children and ever since 2012 Shahid premiered here at TIFF, I’m hoping I can leave my legacy behind for my children.
