What do you do if you’re Charlie Hunnam, it’s the ‘80s, and you’ve just escaped from prison? If you’re living in the Apple TV+ show Shantaram, you go and hide out in Mumbai (it was Bombay at the time, and that’s the name Apple is using), a city where even an obviously Australian man can start a new life without anyone asking questions. Well, Hunnam is English, but the character in Gregory David Roberts’ original book is Australian… so Hunnam is using one of those accents at least.
That may not sound like a perfect plan, but this trailer makes it pretty clear that it’s not. People don’t like it when you escape from their prison and hide out in India, even if you start working to help underprivileged communities and fall in love with a woman who saves you from getting hit by a car. Who knew? Here’s the official synopsis from a press release:
Shantaram follows a fugitive named Lin Ford (Hunnam) looking to get lost in vibrant and chaotic 1980s Bombay. Alone in an unfamiliar city, Lin struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from in this new place. After falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla, Lin must choose between freedom or love and the complications that come with it.
The series also stars Shubham Saraf, Elektra Kilbey, Fayssal Bazzi, Luke Pasqualino, Antonia Desplat, and Alyy Khan. It’s written by Steve Lightfoot (creator of Netflix’s Punisher series, unless we’re supposed to refer to it now as Disney+’s Punisher series now), who also serves as showrunner. It’s based on the aforementioned book of the same name, which is at least somewhat based on Gregory David Roberts’ real life (he’s really Australian and really escaped from an Australian prison to hide out in India).
Shantaram will premiere on Apple TV+ on October 14 with its first three episodes, with each subsequent episode coming out weekly.