Making the journey from Downton to Delhi, Hugh Bonneville is set to star as Lord Mountbatten in the historical drama **Viceroy's House. Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham, Bride And Prejudice) is directing, with Gillian Anderson, Michael Gambon, Lily Travers, Neeraj Kabi, Denzil Smith and Om Puri among the rest of the considerable cast.
The film deals with the six months in 1947 during which Mountbatten assumed the post of the last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people as Britain relinquished its colonial hold. "Mountbatten lived upstairs [at the Viceroy's house in Delhi] together with his wife and daughter," reads the press release. "Downstairs lived their 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants. Against this turbulent backdrop, the personal and the political became deeply entwined and a decision was made that reverberates to this day."
Chadha co-wrote the screenplay with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges and Moira Buffini (Tamara Drew, Byzantium). Chadha and Berges are also producing along with Deepak Nayar. The production has been set up between Pathe, Reliance Entertainment, BBC Films, Ingenious and the BFI.
Anderson is playing Lady Mountbatten, with Kabi as Mahatma Gandhi and Smith as Muhammed Al Jinnah. Shooting began on August 30, for an expected release sometime in 2016.