Applause Entertainment Reunites With ‘Scam 1992’ Director Hansal Mehta And Siddhartha Basu As ‘Gandhi’ Drama Series Takes Shape

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: In May, we revealed Indian studio Applause Entertainment was deep in development on a big-budget drama series about independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, and the studio has now turned to a pair of familiar faces to supercharge the project.Hansal Mehta, who helmed Applause’s SonyLIV drama Scam 1992, has been named director and showrunner of Gandhi (working title) and Siddhartha Basu, who worked with Applause CEO Sameer Nair on the first seasons of India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (titled Kaun Banega Crorepat), has joined as historical consultant, factual advisor and creative consultant.Gandhi will be period drama set during the Indian Independence struggle and is billed as epic in scale, with multiple characters and locations from the Mahatma’s life featured.

It is being adapted from historian and author Ramachandra Guha’s books Gandhi Before India and Gandhi — The Years That Changed the World — a pair of biographies that are among the most complete ever written about the iconic freedom fighter.Applause takes a feature film finance-style approach to its TV series — working up scripts, hiring cast, crew and creatives and shooting before selling the production to Indian streaming services.

That’s very much the approach here, with Mehta and Basu joining Pratik Gandhi, who landed the lead role of his namesake two months ago, as we revealed at the time.Mehta is known as one of Hindi cinema and TV’s leading directors, known for films such as Shahid, City Lights and Simran.

He will creatively lead Gandhi, which is planned to run for multiple seasons and will detail Gandhi’s life and relationships with friends, colleagues and enemies akin to how The Crown has explored the British royal family.