‘Gandhi’, the upcoming series directed by Hansal Mehta, will follow India’s struggle for independence while providing an in-depth portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi at different stages in his life, says producer Sameer Nair, comparing the show’s narrative depth to the acclaimed international series ‘The Crown’, which ran for several seasons on Netflix.

Starring Pratik Gandhi in the titular role, the series promises an exploration of Gandhi’s life and the diverse characters who shaped India’s fight for freedom.

Nair, the Managing Director of production powerhouse Applause Entertainment, said while Gandhi is a globally recognised figure, the show seeks to present a “deeply personal story” that goes beyond his iconic status, according to a PTI report from Mumbai.

“When (Richard) Attenborough made ‘Gandhi’, he had only two and a half hours to make it, and he ended up making a story about Gandhi via a narrow lens. What we are hoping to do with this is to also tell the story of Indian independence, and there are so many other characters involved,” Nair explained, adding they are planning to make three seasons of the show.

“It’s not just Gandhi, it’s also about people who are with him, who were against him, the British and the whole situation. So, these three seasons are more like our ‘The Crown’ (Netflix’s hit show on the British royal family),” Nair told PTI in an interview.

Mehta has enjoyed great success in the streaming space with critically-acclaimed shows such as ‘Scam’ and ‘Scoop’, and Nair hopes ‘Gandhi’ would turn out to be a show that the whole world watches. ‘Gandhi’ will have its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

The banner (Applause Entertainment) is known for shows such as Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Black Warrant’, Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination’, Hansal Mehta’s ‘Scam 1992’ and Pankaj Tripathi-starrer ‘Criminal Justice’ among others.

‘Gandhi’ is based on renowned historian and author Ramachandra Guha’s books, ‘Gandhi Before India’ and ‘Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World’.

The show will also feature Pratik’s wife Bhamini Oza as Kasturba Gandhi and Harry Potter star Tom Felton as Josiah Oldfield.

Nair informed that through three seasons they hope to track Gandhi’s journey from 1888 through 1947. The first season is dedicated to the years 1888 to 1915, while subsequent seasons will cover 1915 to 1932 and finally, 1932 to 1947, he said.

“ ‘Gandhi’ is going to be a big one, and now it’s ready. Hansal is there, Pratik is playing the role, and AR Rahman is doing the music. So, it’s all come together quite well. Hopefully, that should be ready by the end of August.

“Then we’ll take it out there and see how to put it out. But that will be a big one. Season one is about the younger Gandhi that you don’t know about, it’s a young adult story, we call season one Mohan to Mahatma,” Nair said.

He said the first season is about an 18-year-old who goes to London to study law. “So, it’s not the Mahatma you see on the currency note or the person that we all know about. It’s a different guy, and how he becomes that (Mahatma). So, it’s very fascinating,” Nair added.

Nair said they are hoping to release the first season of the show in India by December-end.

“It is quite an expensive project. It’s not easy to do this. We’ve taken some time writing it because you are writing about extremely famous and large public figures, and it needs to be done (right).

“We tell human stories. We take the camera very close to the people and we try to tell human stories. So it’s not about the great, it’s about the people, and how they became great,” he said, adding that they haven’t shot for the subsequent seasons of ‘Gandhi’ yet.