Hotel Mumbai terrorism story filmed in Adelaide
India’s luxury Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was recreated in the Australian city of Adelaide for true-life terrorism movie Hotel Mumbai.
By Nick Goundry 24 Oct 2018
India’s luxury Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was recreated in the Australian city of Adelaide for true-life terrorism movie Hotel Mumbai.
The film charts the events of November 2008 when the guests and staff of the eponymous hotel were besieged by extremists as part of co-ordinated citywide attacks that lasted several days.
Hotel Mumbai was produced as an American-Australian movie with Adelaide native Anthony Maras as director and co-writer.
Limited location filming did take place in Mumbai but production wasn’t possible at the real Taj Mahal Palace Hotel as the site remains a working business.
Maras was keen to make use of Adelaide’s historic architecture.
“The main challenge was finding interior locations that had the sort of scale of this amazing five-star-plus hotel,” says Mark Evans, the film’s location manager, in comments to KFTV.
“We are lucky in Adelaide that we have kept many Victorian-type buildings that can be used to suit many various locations.”
The Taj setting was eventually pieced together with multiple locations. Adelaide’s Freemason’s Hall (pictured above) offered the right art deco style of architecture and became the restaurant and lounge area of the Taj, while an ornate marble staircase stood in for one of the hotel’s opulent entrances.
“This still left lots of corridors, VIP suites and another restaurant still to be either built or found,” Evans tells KFTV. “The offices of Adelaide Studios are housed in this impressive 1850s building (above), with a second floor that was still not renovated – it had the scale and depth that suited the Taj."
“The [production] designer Steven Jones-Evans fell in love with these corridors and even though it needed a total refit, [it] was still cheaper that starting from scratch in the studio," says Evans. "This building is also on the Heritage list and required lots of paperwork and approvals to fit out as a five-star-plus hotel. With the promise of returning it as it was.”
Appropriately-sized spaces in other parts of the Adelaide Studios complex ended up standing in for additional hotel locations.
Adelaide Studios itself offers a pair of sound stages five minutes from the centre of Adelaide.
The city is not one of Australia’s main production hubs but is developing its production profile. Netflix’s espionage drama Pine Gap filmed locally earlier this year and visual effects giant Technicolor is set to open a new base in Adelaide for its Mill Film brand following a boost to South Australia’s post-production incentive support at the end of 2017.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Australia.
Images courtesy of Mark Evans.
Hotel Mumbai was produced as an American-Australian movie with Adelaide native Anthony Maras as director and co-writer.
Limited location filming did take place in Mumbai but production wasn’t possible at the real Taj Mahal Palace Hotel as the site remains a working business.
Maras was keen to make use of Adelaide’s historic architecture.
“The main challenge was finding interior locations that had the sort of scale of this amazing five-star-plus hotel,” says Mark Evans, the film’s location manager, in comments to KFTV.
“We are lucky in Adelaide that we have kept many Victorian-type buildings that can be used to suit many various locations.”
The Taj setting was eventually pieced together with multiple locations. Adelaide’s Freemason’s Hall (pictured above) offered the right art deco style of architecture and became the restaurant and lounge area of the Taj, while an ornate marble staircase stood in for one of the hotel’s opulent entrances.
“This still left lots of corridors, VIP suites and another restaurant still to be either built or found,” Evans tells KFTV. “The offices of Adelaide Studios are housed in this impressive 1850s building (above), with a second floor that was still not renovated – it had the scale and depth that suited the Taj."
“The [production] designer Steven Jones-Evans fell in love with these corridors and even though it needed a total refit, [it] was still cheaper that starting from scratch in the studio," says Evans. "This building is also on the Heritage list and required lots of paperwork and approvals to fit out as a five-star-plus hotel. With the promise of returning it as it was.”
Appropriately-sized spaces in other parts of the Adelaide Studios complex ended up standing in for additional hotel locations.
Adelaide Studios itself offers a pair of sound stages five minutes from the centre of Adelaide.
The city is not one of Australia’s main production hubs but is developing its production profile. Netflix’s espionage drama Pine Gap filmed locally earlier this year and visual effects giant Technicolor is set to open a new base in Adelaide for its Mill Film brand following a boost to South Australia’s post-production incentive support at the end of 2017.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Australia.
Images courtesy of Mark Evans.
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