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Gandhi
stays in London's East End: Kingsley Hall,
Bromley-by-Bow
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GANDHI
filming locations
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CREDITS
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Ben
Kingsleyís performance and the big set pieces enliven
this worthy, coffee-table epic biopic, which was made
almost entirely in India,
including the ëSouth Africaní scenes.
General Smutsí office is Hyderabad
House, New Delhi, built by Edwin Lutyens
as a residence for the ruler of Hyderabad. Regarded
as too Western in style, it was used as a guesthouse
for visiting dignitaries.
The enormous funeral procession, as with so many other
scenes, was filmed on the actual location of the real
event, from Rashtrapati Bhavan
– the Viceroyís Palace in Delhi – down Rajpath
to India Gate. Scenes
were also shot at Porbandar,
Gandhiís birthplace.
The protest at the salt works and the 'Calcutta' riots
were filmed in Bombay, with the shipboard scenes shot
on board the MS Dwarka in the cityís port. More filming
took place at the Aga Khan
Palace, Pune Nagar Highway, Pune, southeast
of Bombay, where Gandhi was interred during the Quit
India Movement in 1942. Itís now designated as a Gandhi
Memorial and is open to the public (tel: 26680250; admission
charge). Also in Pune were the ëSouth Africaní mosque
scene and the protest in the Imperial Theatre.
Patna in the northeast
was the setting for the Champaran indifo farmersí riots,
and the train scenes were staged in Udaipur.
The assassination was filmed on the spot where Gandhi
was actually shot, in the gardens of Gandhi
Smriti (formerly Birla House), 5
Tees January Marg, New Delhi, also a national
memorial (tel: 3011480).
English locations include Kingsley
Hall, Powis Road, Bromley-by-Bow E3, in the
East End, seen in the newsreel of Gandhi's visit to
London. This really is where Gandhi stayed in 1931,
as a Blue Plaque attests; also the Institute
of Directors Club, 116 Pall Mall, seen also
in the 1956 Around The World
In 80 Days.
The Old Town Hall Arts Centre,
Market Square, Staines in Berkshire
used to be the council HQ. It was restored and in 1994
opened as a theatre and function room. It became the
ëIndianí courtroom, where Judge Broomfield (Trevor
Howard) sentences Gandhi to six years imprisonment
for sedition. Itís since been seen in Ali
G Indahouse.
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FILMING
LOCATIONS FOR GANDHI
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