Charlie Hunnam And Shubham Saraf On The Decades-Long Fight To Bring ‘Shantaram’ To The Screen

A screen adaptation of the 80s-set 2003 novel Shantaram has been decades in the making, but finally, it lands on Apple TV+ with Charlie Hunnam in the lead role.

He plays Lin, a convicted bank robber and heroin addict who escapes to India after breaking out of prison. However, his new life in Bombay takes him to dark and dangerous places.

The ten-episode run of the drama-thriller, which premieres on Friday, October 14, 2022, is co-created by Steve Lightfoot, who executive produced NBC’s Hannibal and the Netflix series Marvel’s The Punisher. He has succeeded where Johnny Depp and others failed.

I caught up with leading man Hunnam and co-star Shubhum Saraf to break down making the period piece, what they fought for, the moments of light in the dark, and Hunnam never saying never to playing Bond.

Simon Thompson: There’s a line of dialogue in the first episode saying that only after three nos is a no, a real no, so how many nos did you give to this project before you signed on? Or how many times did they say no, and you wouldn’t take that as a final answer? Let’s start with Charlie.

Charlie Hunnam: First of all, that’s amazing (laughs). Good work. It was a two-way street initially because everyone said yes, but then there were some nos one way and then to each other, and we fought our way back to yes. So, this wasn’t an easy process. Everybody had a clear idea of what they wanted to do, and sometimes those ideas weren’t unified, but that’s part of the creative process. It works out as long as we all do it with love and have a final destination in mind. Thankfully, in this instance, we got there.

Thompson: Shubhum, let’s talk about how much room you were given to make these characters your own. It’s not autobiographical, but they are inspired by real people. Did that give you more room to play with them or less?

Shubhum Saraf: That’s a good question because one of my favorite aspects of the entire process was how collaborative everyone was. I joined the production reasonably late on, and for Steve Lightfoot, executive producer Bharat Nalluri, and Charlie, it had been their baby for quite a while. The story sat with Charlie for seven years. Even though I jumped on board at that stage of the game, they met me with open hearts and open eyes. They all wanted to know what I thought, and soon enough, I was like, ‘Actually, what if we did it like this because I’ve been to Bombay a few times.’ I was a real pain in the ass, but despite that, everyone was very willing, accommodating, and collaborative with me, especially Steve and Charlie. Charlie and I basically just did our own thing, and everyone else has had to deal with it (laughs). It felt like doing this chaotic dance, and somehow we got away with it. Well, we’ll let the audience be the judge of that, I guess.

Thompson: Charlie, because your character involves so many facets, were you given less room to play around with him?

Hunnam: Yes, and no. I was involved in two separate iterations of figuring out how we would take this brilliant, beloved piece of source material and adapt it. My character, Lin, was one of the central questions of how we approached that. I had a firm conviction that we needed Lin to be really neutral to begin with, that he was a relatable every man who had made a mistake and had radically altered the trajectory of his life, and that we didn’t weigh him down with too much baggage as a consequence of that. I felt like the journey for Lin is the journey, and it’s extraordinary throughout the novel. In terms of the big creative tussles we were having, they mainly required asking, ‘How much of the exposure to criminality has affected Lin?’ My conviction was not at all because we need to go somewhere, and the Bombay mafia, in a wonderful new and fresh way, becomes an enormous character in the story later on. We wanted to see the gravitational pull of that, and I wanted to see and know the consequence of surrendering to the dark side. If he was already there, we had nowhere to go. That was a vigorous debate for a long time.

Thompson: You talk about the dark places this goes, but Shubhum, your character, Prabhu, brings levity to specific moments, especially his relationship with Lin.

Saraf: You’re absolutely right. I think Prabhu and the slum world represent half of that battle between the dark and the light. Charlie describes it as the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of gold, and that’s where the darkness resides. Prabhu was such a joy to play. Arguably, he has one of the toughest lives of anyone in this story because he lives darkness every day. He’s faced his poverty and hunger to the extent that none of us can imagine, and somehow still comes out with that levity you talk about and conquers these impossible obstacles through love. I think that’s the shining lesson at the heart of the story. No matter what magical paradox or battle of heart and will is going on, there is a choice you can face, and within that choice, there is love, and within it lies freedom.

Thompson: This is set in the 80s, as is the original book, but not overtly 80s. Sometimes people like to shoehorn things in, but this feels very organic and also contemporary. Were there discussions about how authentic it would be and how hard you pushed that?

Hunnam: It was definitely a debate in the beginning, and every department gets involved in that. How 80s is the costuming going to go? Will we use film stock to replicate the film stock of the 80s? All of these different departments had to weigh in on that. When we initially shot the first iteration of this, we shot in India, and it’s impossible to close down streets in Mumbai, so we were shooting in causeways and stuff where there were 1000s of people. There’s a diversity in the dress in India, some people dress very traditionally, and then there’s a modern tint to it to where there are Nikes and the latest t-shirts. It was very difficult to commit in that first iteration to going purely period, and I think we were happy with that result. When our hand was forced, and we had to go to Thailand instead of India and recreate India, I think that sense of not being too beholden to the period had already been set for us.

Thompson: With so much running and action in this, Bond did come into my mind for you, Charlie. You have the presence and the physicality. They want a new 007 with a 10 to 15-year commitment. Do you have 10 to 15 years to spare?

Hunnam: I mean, I certainly do. I laugh at that when it comes up occasionally when I do press. People like yourself very kindly throw my name in the hat. Nobody’s ever officially approached me about that. I would certainly consider it, and it would be an enormous honor. It would be a big commitment, and I’ve got a load of stuff I want to do over the next 10 to 15 years, but it worked out pretty well for Daniel Craig, so you know, never say never. Again.

Shantaram is streaming on Apple TV+.