Shantaram

Shantaram is a 2003 roman à clef written by Gregory David Roberts, a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison and fled to India where he lived for 10 years.

Shantaram is a novel influenced by real events in the life of the author, Australian Gregory David Roberts, filled with mostly fictional adventures. In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to nineteen years' imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions, and shops, which he had committed to feed a heroin addiction after his marriage ended and he lost his daughter. 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.

In the fictional story, Roberts' main character arrives in Bombay carrying a fake passport in the name of Lindsay Ford. Bombay was only a stopover on a journey that was to take Lin from New Zealand to Germany, but he decides to stay in the city. Lin soon meets a local man named Prabaker, who he hires as a guide but soon becomes his best friend and renames him Linbaba. Both men visit Prabaker's native village, Sunder, where Prabaker's mother christens Lin with the name Shantaram, meaning Man of God's Peace. On their way back to Bombay and after a night out, Lin and Prabaker are robbed. With all his possessions gone, Lin is forced to live in the slums, giving him shelter from the authorities and free rent in Bombay. 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 contains several other characters, notably a number of foreigners of varied origin and local Indians, highlighting the rich diversity of life in Bombay. Lin falls in love with Karla, a Swiss-American girl 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 Bombay underworld for various criminal operations, including drug and weapons trade. Lin eventually lands in Bombay'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 Afghani 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.

Shantaram is a work of fiction. However, due to its very vivid content and Roberts' known biography, some readers believe the book to be based more on fact and less on fiction. This highlights inherent difficulties with verification of the accounts given in the book. Some parts of the story are on the public record, such as Roberts' criminal history and escape from prison in Australia, while others remain obscure. However, Roberts has stated that most of the story is fiction, and that he merged different elements taken from true events and people into fictional events and characters like Prabaker 'of the big smile'. The Mumbai Mirror, in March 2006, reported they may have discovered the inspiration of the big smile of the character Prabaker as belonging to a still living cab driver called Kishore, who took Roberts to his home village. Many other major facets of the book are fictional; for example, Roberts admits that there were no Sapna killers.
However in an interview with the author Roberts does admit that the real character on whom Prabhakar was based on has indeed died long back ago. So the Mumbai Mirror article could be just assumptive.

Characters in Shantaram

• Lindsay Ford aka Linbaba aka Shantaram
• Prabhaker
• Karla Saaranen The green-eyed German-American who serves as Lin's muse.
• Khader Khan
• Abdullah
• Didier Levy

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 Roberts, 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.

Gregory Roberts has said that Shantaram is the second book in a planned quartet, however it is the only book currently available. The next book is expected to be a sequel, followed by a prequel, and finally another sequel.



When the novel Shantaram was published, several parties, including actor Russell Crowe, 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 would be based on a script written by the book's author Gregory David Roberts. Roberts commended the casting choice, stating of Depp's suitability "He is the only American actor I know who is clued into India – from its cuisines and writers to Satyajit Ray and Mani Ratnam" 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 for production to begin by fall 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 for production to finally begin in September 2008, but the film remained postponed as of January 2009. Nair said that the film was still on track and that it would be released by 2011.