Making of film Gandhi

Aug 31 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)
The Attenborough I knew
Anil Dharker


How an 'Oscar-winning' performance saved `Gandhi' even before shooting began
Working as NFDC's telephone operator, Rajni had become quite blasé about film celebrities ringing up. But that morning she could barely conceal her excitement. “Mr Dharker,“ I heard her say, “Sir Richard Attenborough on the line.“ This was no hoax: Sir Richard was indeed in town, and he wanted an appointment to see me.
The next morning he was in my office. He eloquently described his 20-year struggle to make a film on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. He had nursed that ambition for many years; the script had gone through several writers and each writer had gone through multiple drafts.The original cast was now obviously too old so he would look for new people. But now he had the best possible script and it was time to take Mahatma Gandhi's message of peace and non violence to our troubled world, he said.

“What kind of money are you looking for Sir Richard?“ I asked. “Five crores,“ he said. (This was in early 1980 and a crore was really big money then).In spite of myself I started to laugh.“Sorry,“ I said. “I don't mean to be rude.Your first number is fine, it's your zeroes I have a problem with.“ I explained that our maximum limit was 5 lakh and he wanted two zeroes more. It was his turn to laugh.

Surprisingly, he was back the next morning. “I will take it, Anil. (Okay if I call you Anil? Everyone calls me Dickie). I thought about it all day yesterday and all night too. I've decided -if your offer still stands -that I will take the five lakh rupees.“ He must have seen my astonishment, so he explained his logic. If I could give him a letter saying NFDC, a government of India body , was supporting the Gandhi film by part financing it, it would help him raise money abroad. He just had one request, “Please don't mention the amount.“ I gave him the letter, omitting any reference to the five lakh figure.

Then his luck changed: he managed to get the Gandhi script to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She was said to be a voracious reader, and she always read last thing at night, before going to sleep.She apparently read the script at one go, picked up the phone first thing in the morning and said to the I & B Minister, “Why aren't we supporting this film?“ My paltry five lakh became five crore overnight, and if I remember right, the final figure was Rs 8 crore of the total budget of Rs 20 crore. Gandhi went on to make very many times that amount, was nominated for eleven Oscars and won eight, including best picture, best director (both for Attenborough), best actor (Ben Kingsley) and one for our very own Bhanu Athaiya for best cos tume design.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Newwave filmmakers, incensed that a foreigner was getting five crore when they got only five lakh, started a Movement Against the Making of the Gandhi Film (their even had a letterhead saying that) which received a lot of media support.Bollywood moguls gave their thumbs down to nervous I & B mandarins. “Yeh darling kya film banayega, or woh bhi Gandhi par!“ `Darling' was a reference to Attenborough's habit of calling everybody darling (including, it is said, the formidable Margaret Thatcher. When the British PM first met Attenborough, she said, “Why have we not met before?“ To which Sir Richard replied, “Because you haven't called me, darling.“) The negativity against the film was garnering so much momentum that there was a real danger the government would change its mind and not give the promised crores through NFDC. Then the tide turned: Doordarshan, the only TV channel of that time, telecast an interview of Attenborough by Gerson da Cunha.When Gerson asked about his long quest to make the film, Attenborough broke down and couldn't speak; when Gerson asked about the Gandhian values which had inspired him, Attenborough had tears running down his cheeks. “How sincere the man is!“ everyone said. “Who else is so passionate about a film on Gandhi?' everyone asked. Attenborough's television performance, for that's what it was, may have been part pent-up emotion, part acting, but it worked and the opposition to the film disappeared. I had a personal taste of `Dickie's' acting prowess soon after at a high powered meeting in Delhi. Attenborough and members of his key team were there, and so was the Secretary of I & B and senior officials. I had brought in a detailed plan to reduce the budget by replacing the foreign production personnel with Indian ones who, I said, were equally competent, and would cost much, much less. The more I spoke the more Attenborough went red in the face.“Mr Secretary, sir,“ he finally said, “If I am to be cross-examined like this on every detail on a project I have given my life to, I am leaving.“ He picked up his papers and signalled his team to pick up theirs. The I & B Secretary panicked (the spectre of Mrs G's wrath flashing before his eyes). “No, no, Sir Richard,“ he said.“Please, please sit down and let's work this out.“ I was signalled to keep quiet, and Richard got his way. Right through the long meeting if I ever caught Richard's eye, he would bow slightly and do a contrite namaste.

How could I grudge him his showy tantrum? He had had the most glittering of careers, as actor (one Oscar, one BAFTA, two Golden Globes, starring roles in films as disparate as Brighton Rock, Jurassic Park and Shatranj ke Khiladi) and as Director (Oh What a Lovely War!, A Bridge Too Far, Cry Freedom, Chaplin), but Gandhi was his lifetime obsession, and he was not going to let anything get in his way. He worked 18 hours a day and delivered the film within budget, and on time -which is remarkable for a shooting schedule which traversed the length and breadth of India and lasted a full year of continuous shooting. Also, this was in the days before CGI, so for a scene like Mahatma Gandhi's funeral, he used 3,00,000 extras and 19 cameras, while the whole film used 11 crews and miles and miles of film. It was a colossal effort about a Mahatma who was out of fashion, portrayed by an actor no one knew, and it affected everyone who saw it, wherever they were.

No one else could have made Gandhi on this scale without Attenborough's single-minded determination, which was apparently so characteristic of him.Like he got Sheila Sim, a fellow student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. They acted opposite each other in an Academy production. The morning after the performance, he asked her to marry him, and continued asking every single morning until she said yes.They married in 1945, and stayed together till the very end.