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Shantaram (novel)
Encyclopedia
Shantaram is a 2003 novel
by Gregory David Roberts
, in which a convicted Australia
n bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison
flees to India
where he lives for 10 years. The novel is commended by many for its vivid portrayal of tumultuous life in Bombay.
branches, credit unions, and shops. In July 1980, he escaped from Victoria’s Pentridge Prison
in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia's most wanted
men for the next ten years.
The protagonist Lindsay arrives in Mumbai carrying a false passport in the name of Lindsay Ford. Mumbai was only a stopover on a journey that was to take him from New Zealand
to Germany
, but he decides to stay in the city. Lin soon meets a local man named Prabaker whom he hires as a guide, but soon becomes his best friend and renames him Lin (Linbaba). Both men visit Prabaker's native village, Sunder, where Prabaker's mother decided to give Lin a new Maharashtrian name, like her own. Because she judged his nature to be blessed with peaceful happiness, she decided to call him Shantaram, meaning Man of God's Peace. On their way back to Mumbai after a night out, Lin and Prabaker are robbed. With all his possessions gone, Lin is forced to live in the slum
s, giving him shelter from the authorities and free rent in Mumbai. After a massive fire on the day of his arrival in the slum, he sets up a free health clinic as a way to contribute to the community. He learns about the local culture and customs in this crammed environment, gets to know and love the people he encounters, and even becomes fluent in Marathi
, the local language. He also witnesses and battles outbreaks of cholera
and firestorms, becomes involved in trading with the lepers, and experiences how ethnic and marital conflicts are resolved in this densely crowded and diverse community.
The novel describes a number of foreigners of various origins, as well as local Indians, highlighting the rich diversity of life in Mumbai. Lin falls in love with Karla, a Swiss-American woman who refuses to love him back, befriends local artists and actors, landing him roles as an extra
in several Bollywood
movies, and is recruited by the Mumbai underworld
for various criminal operations, including drug and weapons trade. Lin eventually lands in Mumbai's Arthur Road Prison
, where he endures many beatings and other physical and mental abuse by guards, while existing under extremely squalid conditions, along with hundreds of other inmates. However, thanks to the protection of Afghan
mafia don "Abdel Khader Khan", Lin is eventually released, and works in black market currency exchange and passport forgery. Having travelled as far as Africa on trips commissioned by the mafia, Lin later goes to Afghanistan to smuggle weapons for mujahideen
freedom fighters in Afghanistan. When his mentor Khan is killed, Lin realizes he became everything he grew to loathe and falls into depression after he returns. He decides that he must fight for what he believes is right, and build an honest life. The story ends with him planning to go to Sri Lanka
which lays the premise for the sequel
to this book.
, reported they may have discovered the inspiration for the big smile of the character Prabaker as belonging to a still living cab driver called Kishore, who took Roberts to his home village.
, rights to all forms of the local publication of Shantaram reverted to the author after Scribe sold its remaining stock of hardbacks. Pan Macmillian
then took over publication under the Picador label
.
However the release date has been pushed back several times.
, expressed interest in a film adaptation. Although Crowe was temporarily attached to a bid, Warner Bros.
went forward with a $2 million bid primarily due to actor Johnny Depp
's expression of love for the book to studio executive Brad Grey. With the rights won, Depp was attached to star in the film, which was to be based on a script written by the book's author Gregory David Roberts
. Roberts commended the casting choice, and the author said of his intended script, "The screenplay I am writing will be as complex and will have the same sense of layering and texturing. Thematically, it will reflect everything that is in the heart of the book and that is the exile experience, and the power of love to transform and change the heart of a person. But the book is a book and the film is a film—they are different art forms so the film will have an independent life." In October 2005, Warner Bros. hired screenwriter Eric Roth
to rewrite the initial draft created by Roberts. The following November, director Peter Weir
was hired by the studio to helm Shantaram and develop the script with Roth. The studio originally planned to schedule production for late 2006.
By June 2006, Weir departed from the project with a studio spokesperson citing different interpretations between the director and the studio and producers. In January 2007, director Mira Nair
replaced Weir at the helm. The studio anticipated production would begin by autumn 2007 for a 2008 release. Roth began rewriting the script to lower project costs, and actor Amitabh Bachchan
joined to star opposite Depp. By November 2007, the anticipated February production start was canceled by Warner Bros, who cited the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
's interference with the script's readiness, the impending monsoon season in India
, and Depp's schedule difficulties in filming between India and New Mexico in the United States. The studio anticipated that production would finally begin in September 2008, but by November 2009, with production not starting, The Independent
reported the project had been cancelled.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Gregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts is an Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980, and fled to India where he lived for ten years.-Life:Roberts had become addicted to heroin after his marriage ended,...
, in which a convicted Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison
HM Prison Pentridge
HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison built in 1850 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison officially closed on 1 May 1997....
flees to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
where he lives for 10 years. The novel is commended by many for its vivid portrayal of tumultuous life in Bombay.
Plot summary
Shantaram is a novel influenced by real events in the life of the author, Australian Gregory David Roberts. In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building societyBuilding society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...
branches, credit unions, and shops. In July 1980, he escaped from Victoria’s Pentridge Prison
HM Prison Pentridge
HM Prison Pentridge was an Australian prison built in 1850 in Coburg, Victoria. The first prisoners arrived in 1851. The prison officially closed on 1 May 1997....
in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia's most wanted
Most Wanted
*Lists used by law enforcement agencies to alert the public, such as:**FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives**FBI Most Wanted Terrorists**United States Secret Service Most Wanted Fugitives**U.S...
men for the next ten years.
The protagonist Lindsay arrives in Mumbai carrying a false passport in the name of Lindsay Ford. Mumbai was only a stopover on a journey that was to take him from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, but he decides to stay in the city. Lin soon meets a local man named Prabaker whom he hires as a guide, but soon becomes his best friend and renames him Lin (Linbaba). Both men visit Prabaker's native village, Sunder, where Prabaker's mother decided to give Lin a new Maharashtrian name, like her own. Because she judged his nature to be blessed with peaceful happiness, she decided to call him Shantaram, meaning Man of God's Peace. On their way back to Mumbai after a night out, Lin and Prabaker are robbed. With all his possessions gone, Lin is forced to live in the slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s, giving him shelter from the authorities and free rent in Mumbai. After a massive fire on the day of his arrival in the slum, he sets up a free health clinic as a way to contribute to the community. He learns about the local culture and customs in this crammed environment, gets to know and love the people he encounters, and even becomes fluent in Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, the local language. He also witnesses and battles outbreaks of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
and firestorms, becomes involved in trading with the lepers, and experiences how ethnic and marital conflicts are resolved in this densely crowded and diverse community.
The novel describes a number of foreigners of various origins, as well as local Indians, highlighting the rich diversity of life in Mumbai. Lin falls in love with Karla, a Swiss-American woman who refuses to love him back, befriends local artists and actors, landing him roles as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in several Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movies, and is recruited by the Mumbai underworld
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
for various criminal operations, including drug and weapons trade. Lin eventually lands in Mumbai's Arthur Road Prison
Arthur Road Jail
Arthur Road Jail , built in 1926, is Mumbai's largest and oldest prison. It houses most of the city's prisoners. It is located near Sat Rasta , between Mahalaxmi and Chinchpokli railway stations in the southern part the city. It was upgraded in 1994 to become a Central Prison and its official name...
, where he endures many beatings and other physical and mental abuse by guards, while existing under extremely squalid conditions, along with hundreds of other inmates. However, thanks to the protection of Afghan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
mafia don "Abdel Khader Khan", Lin is eventually released, and works in black market currency exchange and passport forgery. Having travelled as far as Africa on trips commissioned by the mafia, Lin later goes to Afghanistan to smuggle weapons for mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
freedom fighters in Afghanistan. When his mentor Khan is killed, Lin realizes he became everything he grew to loathe and falls into depression after he returns. He decides that he must fight for what he believes is right, and build an honest life. The story ends with him planning to go to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
which lays the premise for the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to this book.
Fact-based elements
Based on Roberts' known biography, Shantaram reads as largely factual. A few parts of the story, such as Roberts' criminal history and escape from prison in Australia, are a matter of public record, while others remain harder (or impossible) to verify. There is a great deal of debate as to where the boundaries lie between fact and fiction in the book. Roberts has stated the characters in the story are largely invented, and that he merged different elements taken from true events and people into such events and characters like Prabaker 'of the big smile'. In March 2006, the Mumbai MirrorMumbai Mirror
Mumbai Mirror is a largest compact newspaper in the city of Mumbai with a daily circulation of over 600,000 copies. Its first issue was published on May 30, 2005 by the Times Group, the publishers of The Times of India newspaper....
, reported they may have discovered the inspiration for the big smile of the character Prabaker as belonging to a still living cab driver called Kishore, who took Roberts to his home village.
Publication history
Originally, Shantaram was published by Scribe Publications as a hardcover and later as a paperback. Following the mediated resolution in 2004 of a dispute that arose in 2003 between Scribe and the book’s author, Gregory David RobertsGregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts is an Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980, and fled to India where he lived for ten years.-Life:Roberts had become addicted to heroin after his marriage ended,...
, rights to all forms of the local publication of Shantaram reverted to the author after Scribe sold its remaining stock of hardbacks. Pan Macmillian
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
then took over publication under the Picador label
Picador (imprint)
Picador is an imprint of Pan Macmillan in the United Kingdom and Australia and of Macmillan Publishing in the United States. Both companies are owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
.
Sequels and prequels
Gregory Roberts has said that Shantaram is the second book in a planned quartet; however, it is the only novel currently available. A sequel entitled The Mountain Shadow is scheduled to be published on 31 May 2012 by Little Brown as per Borders Australia. This next book is expected to be followed by a prequel, and a second sequel.However the release date has been pushed back several times.
Film adaptation
When the novel Shantaram was published in 2003, several parties, including actor Russell CroweRussell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
, expressed interest in a film adaptation. Although Crowe was temporarily attached to a bid, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
went forward with a $2 million bid primarily due to actor Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
's expression of love for the book to studio executive Brad Grey. With the rights won, Depp was attached to star in the film, which was to be based on a script written by the book's author Gregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts
Gregory David Roberts is an Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980, and fled to India where he lived for ten years.-Life:Roberts had become addicted to heroin after his marriage ended,...
. Roberts commended the casting choice, and the author said of his intended script, "The screenplay I am writing will be as complex and will have the same sense of layering and texturing. Thematically, it will reflect everything that is in the heart of the book and that is the exile experience, and the power of love to transform and change the heart of a person. But the book is a book and the film is a film—they are different art forms so the film will have an independent life." In October 2005, Warner Bros. hired screenwriter Eric Roth
Eric Roth
Eric Roth is an American screenwriter. He won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump . He also co-wrote the screenplay for Michael Mann's The Insider , the Steven Spielberg film Munich , and David Fincher's film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , all of which were nominated for...
to rewrite the initial draft created by Roberts. The following November, director Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
was hired by the studio to helm Shantaram and develop the script with Roth. The studio originally planned to schedule production for late 2006.
By June 2006, Weir departed from the project with a studio spokesperson citing different interpretations between the director and the studio and producers. In January 2007, director Mira Nair
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
replaced Weir at the helm. The studio anticipated production would begin by autumn 2007 for a 2008 release. Roth began rewriting the script to lower project costs, and actor Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
joined to star opposite Depp. By November 2007, the anticipated February production start was canceled by Warner Bros, who cited the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
's interference with the script's readiness, the impending monsoon season in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Depp's schedule difficulties in filming between India and New Mexico in the United States. The studio anticipated that production would finally begin in September 2008, but by November 2009, with production not starting, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
reported the project had been cancelled.