Bringing the international bestseller Shantaram to the screen has been as epic as the story itself and Melbourne, Victoria – where Gregory David Roberts’ novel begins – stepped into the spotlight.

The 12-episode Apple TV+ drama series was filmed over 120 days at Docklands Studios Melbourne and at more than 20 locations across Melbourne, with support through the Australian Government’s Location Incentive Program and the Victorian Screen Incentive.

Shantaram stars Charlie Hunnam as Lin Ford, a convicted Australian bank robber who escapes Melbourne’s notorious Pentridge Prison and flees to India.

When the production was scouting locations in 2018, VicScreen showed that Melbourne could not only deliver what they needed for the Melbourne scenes, but the city’s varied looks meant they could film many of the scenes in the streets, slums and bars of Bombay there too.

“Ultimately the producers couldn’t pass up Melbourne and all it has to offer: highly skilled and experienced HODs, crew and screen businesses, world-class sound stages located minutes from downtown, and accessible and versatile locations. Melbourne’s Indian community – the largest in Australia – also played a key role, with hundreds of extras employed on the series.”

Joe Brinkmann, Head of Incentives & Production Support, VicScreen

Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison formed the key prison location in Shantaram. The prison closed in 1997, however, the 19th-century building remains intact.

The production also filmed in the cells at the Old Melbourne Gaol, which doubled for interrogation rooms. The neighbouring Old Magistrates’ Court and Old City Watch House were used for the Australian courtroom and for police stations in Australia and Bombay.

Shacks were built on a beach in the seaside suburb of Altona for the filming of key scenes in the Bombay slums.

Melbourne’s iconic Hotel Windsor stood in for a luxury Indian hotel and the production filmed extensively in the hotel’s lobby, staircases, hallways and suites over three days, with the side exteriors also doubling for Bombay streets.

Melbourne’s famous laneways played their part as both Australia and India, depicting key scenes following Ford’s escape from prison in Melbourne as well as the narrow streets and alleyways of Bombay.

Interior builds were constructed in the Newport Railway Workshops in Melbourne’s west, which doubled for a busy Bombay train station. The cavernous sheds are still in their original condition and offered substantial production value for the series’ designers.

To replicate the busy streets of Bombay, the production took over the Calder Park Raceway on the city’s outskirts, setting up blue screens in the motor racing circuit and filming with large numbers of old cars and motorbikes.

Rippon Lea, a large 19th-century mansion surrounded by 17 acres of gardens in the inner Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick, offered the production multiple looks in the one place.

The long driveway, large courtyard and side portico provided a grand entrance to The Palace, a fictional brothel in Bombay, while the production designers enhanced the existing gates to the property to reflect Indian architecture.

The extensive gardens allowed large crowd scenes and the pool, period ballroom and verandah were dressed as a gymkhana, a term coined during the British Raj for gentlemen’s club.

The series was co-created, written and executive produced by Steve Lightfoot, who also served as showrunner. Bharat Nalluri directed and executive produced. Andrea Barron, Nicole Clemens, Steve Golin, Justin Kurzel, also executive produced along with Eric Warren Singer, who co-created the series. Shantaram is produced by Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content’s AC Studios.

Want to find out more about filming in Victoria?
Contact Joe Brinkman
Head of Incentives & Production Support, VicScreen
[email protected]
vicscreen.vic.gov.au