The first look at Charlie Hunnam’s Shantaram, which has been in the works for years and had to be temporarily halted in 2020 due to a lack of scripting from the show’s original showrunner and lead writer Eric Warren Singer, has finally arrived. Hunnam plays Lin Ford, a wanted criminal on the run in 1980s Bombay, in this series that began filming in 2019. The show is based on a novel by best-selling author Gregory David Roberts.
In the first picture from the series, we see the Sons of Anarchy star riding a motorcycle again, presumably in an attempt to evade capture by the authorities. Besides the updated poster, Apple TV+ also shared the news that the series’ release date has been set for this coming Friday, October 14. Given the novel’s widespread acclaim when it was published in 2003, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for adapting it for the big screen.
Apple acquired the rights to the novel after Anonymous Content and Paramount Television acquired them with the intention of adapting the book into a television series. The show follows Australian bank robber Lin Ford as he attempts to get lost in Bombay, a city that has been called “a hopeful cinematic love story paired with a thrilling epic adventure.” However, staying out of trouble with the authorities is no simple feat, especially when he’s on his own in a strange city.
Along the way, he meets a mysterious lady named Karla and falls in love with her, putting him in the position of having to decide between living a life of freedom and love and the difficulties that come with attempting to settle down. Fans of Sons of Anarchy will recognise the opening shot, even if Hunnam isn’t wearing his signature jacket and helmet. Instead, when he bikes into town, he wears a button-down shirt and pants. From the looks of the photo, he’s in a less affluent neighbourhood, with dirt streets and abandoned buildings in the distance. Considering the diverse and lovely landscapes that makeup Bombay and India as a whole, he should have no shortage of intriguing sites to see as he travels around on his bike.
Shubham Saraf, Elektra Kilbey, Fayssal Bazzi, Luke Pasqualino, Antonia Desplat, Alyy Khan, Sujaya Dasgupta, Vincent Perez, David Field, Alexander Siddig, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, Elham Ehsas, Rachel Kamath, Matthew Joseph, and Shiv Palekar are just a few of the talented actors featured in Shantaram. The singer collaborated on the series’ creation alongside Andrea Barron, Nicole Clemens, Steve Golin, Justin Kurzel, and Steve Lightfoot; however, Lightfoot ultimately took over as showrunner and completed the series’ writing.
Singer, the other showrunners, and director Bharat Nalluri all continue to serve as executive producers. Since production on Shantaram began, Hunnam has been keeping busy with roles in the independent film Last Looks with Morena Baccarin and the ensemble cast of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon. He’s been working on Apple TV+ for over three years, a period he described as “tough” in a November 2020 interview because of the frequent switching between his own thoughts and Lin’s during development delays. Three brand new episodes of Shantaram will premiere on October 14, with further episodes airing weekly on Fridays till December 16.