Interview with historical consultants Raaja Bhasin and Alastair Bruce

28 January 2015

An interview with Simla-based historian Bhasin and Downton Abbey advisor Bruce, who served as historical consultants on Indian Summers.

 

What do you think sets Indian Summers apart from other British dramas that have looked at this period in India’s history?

Raaja Bhasin: Practically all of the other dramas were based on existing books – The Jewel in the Crown, Staying On, Heat, Dust and others. Indian Summers is the first to have been written for the screen and not adapted for it. Also, the story is told substantially from an Indian viewpoint.

Alastair Bruce: Indian Summers takes you into a colonial environment where you witness the interaction of two class structures thrown together by seen and unseen power struggles. It also sees people respond to their feelings, aspirations and destiny against an unfamiliar, exotic and beautiful backdrop, itself stitched with rigid rules of behaviour.

 

Though set in a politically tumultuous time, at the heart of the drama are many personal relationships. How difficult was it balancing the need to instil drama while retaining historical accuracy and fidelity?

Raaja Bhasin: Real-life drama has existed throughout history, and Simla has had its fair share of those. Personal relationships in a rarefied setting were anyway there. One just had to balance this out in Indian Summers.

 

How do you think Indian audiences will respond to the drama?

Raaja Bhasin: I think Indian audiences will react very positively. It’s a great story, or more accurately several stories in one big drama.

 

There are some uncomfortable facets of British attitudes and behaviour highlighted in Indian Summers – how much does this resemble historical fact?

Alastair Bruce: There were good and bad imperialists just as there are good and bad in everything. Any occupying force must assume implicit even polite discontent at its presence: the drama comes when small people from Britain were granted great powers in India and had not the perspective to carry humility too.

Alastair, you’ve previously advised on Downton Abbey. What are the differences in protocol and society between that world and the world explored in Indian Summers?

Alastair Bruce: There were many similar protocols in both worlds with the added need of manner to provide for differences between the rulers and the ruled, on the one hand, and maintain respect for ancient faiths on the other. Whereas much of what is done in Downton Abbey is natural to all, the Indian perspective was full of unknowns and occasionally painful gaucheness.

Raaja, accuracy to detail is key in historical dramas – what were the elements that were more important to you that were done right and what were the challenges you faced?

Raaja Bhasin: Really important for me were the nuances in speech and mannerism that were key to the period; for example, the wife of a British senior civil servant would never address a servant by name but would use his job-title. One of the challenges was that the filming was not done in Simla so expectedly, the setting will have different look, but the portrayal is accurate in most ways.  

 

Alastair, as a descendent of two Viceroys yourself, what’s your personal reaction to the show?

Alastair Bruce: James and Victor Bruce (both Earls of Elgin) each held the Viceroyalty long before Indian Summers is set but their diaries of time spent in Simla are profoundly insightful. The show echoes many of their experiences. Victor so hated the splendour of Viceregal Lodge he bought Mashobra, an escape close to the town (still official holiday home for the President of India).