Deadline reported yesterday that Tom Felton joins a host of international actors in a new series focusing on Gandhi and his early life.

Tom will play Josiah Oldfield, Gandhi’s first and best friend during a period he spent in London while studying law.

The show will tell the story of Mahatma Gandhi’s earlier adult years before becoming a political icon and nonviolence protest pioneer, in particular his time spent in London and South Africa.

…
“I’m excited to be part of the journey of telling the story of Gandhi’s early years in London,” said Felton. “It’s an important aspect of history that hasn’t been told on screen before, and to be working with Hansal and Pratik is an honour and pleasure.”
…

…
In a series of interviews, stars Pratik Gandhi and Tom Felton, director Hansal Mehta and executive producer Sameer Nair revealed the latest on the show, which is being billed as one of the biggest to ever come out of India.
…
Earlier today, we revealed Tom Felton has been cast as Josiah Oldfield, who helped Gandhi find his way when he was living and studying law in London. The paired bonded over their vegetarianism and went on to have a long friendship.
“It was a short-term relief that Gandhi found someone that cared about vegetarianism as much as he did,” said Felton. “They shared a close relationship as friends and people with the same ideals.”
Felton said he had developed his character with director Mehta, who also lensed SonyLIV’s Scam 1992 and 2003 series, is behind 2023 film The Buckingham Murders and Netflix’s Indian series Scoop. “It was less about being historically perfectly accurate but more about representing what that time of both of their lives was,” said Felton.
…
credit: Deadline 1 & read the full interview here —> Deadline 2

Interview by Variety

…
“It is about the relationship between the two of them and how they found each other at exactly the right time. And how without meeting each other, their lives would have definitely been different,” Felton tells Variety while on location for the series in London. “Certainly, Gandhi’s would have been and therefore the whole world would have been a very different place.”
Felton, who is not a vegetarian in real life, prepared for the role of Oldfield through a lot of reading and consultation with his 93-year-old grandfather, who he describes as being “very wise in history, so he knew exactly who Oldfield was.”
“Most of my research has been on the spot, literally live with the director. That’s the best thing about working with not only an Indian crew, but someone that knows a lot more about it than than Wikipedia,” Felton says. On getting the body language of the character right with few images available, Felton says that shooting at real locations dating back to Oldfield’s era helped him slide into the period, as did the costumes.
Felton has worked with crews around the world and loved working with an Indian group. “It’s just remarkably calm, efficient like I’ve never seen before. Something that will usually take twice as long takes half the time, but everyone seems to just be very calm and chilled about it,” Felton says. “But more importantly, they understand English banter, as I would call it. So within day one or day two, we’re already insulting each other in a very friendly way.”
The most challenging part of the shoot for Felton was keeping up with Pratik Gandhi, no relation of the Mahatma, who plays Gandhi. “He is astonishing at getting into character very quickly and I have never heard him slip one line. I’ve slipped quite a few. It’s amazing to be surrounded by such effortless talent. It brings your game up,” Felton says.
…
Read the full interview here.

credit; Variety

Behind the Scenes Videos with interviews: