Tom Felton on-board Hansal Mehta’s Gandhi: Report

Actor Tom Felton, popularly known for playing Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, will be part of Hansal Mehta’s series Gandhi.

As per a report in Deadline, Tom will play the role of Josiah Oldfield, Gandhi’s friend during his time in London when he was studying law. As per earlier reports Scam 1992 actor Pratik Gandhi will be essaying the role of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and his real-life partner and actor Bhamini Oza will play Kasturba, MK Gandhi’s wife.

Apart from Tom, British actors James Murray (Masters of the Air, The Crown), Jonno Davies (Better Man, Hunters), Molly Wright (Apostasy), Simon Lennon (Bridgerton, Our Girl), Ralph Adeniyi (The Tunnel, Queenie), Libby Mai and Lindon Alexander (Undercover, The Gold) will also be part of the cast.

Josiah Oldfield was one of the co-founders of the Vegetarian Society of London and an admirer of Indian culture. He was influential in Gandhi’s life after a chance meeting brought them together. The Englishman encouraged Gandhi to write for the Vegetarian Magazine and later allowed his friend to live with him.

“I’m excited to be part of the journey of telling the story of Gandhi’s early years in London,” Tom told Deadline. “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.”

“Working with an exceptionally talented cast has been nothing but a privilege,” said Hansal Mehta. “The casting of some exceptional international actors to our ensemble is even more exciting as we prepare to take our labour of love to audiences worldwide.”

The series, produced by Sameer Nair’s Applause Entertainment, is based on historian Ramachandra Guha’s books Gandhi Before India and Gandhi – The Years that Changed the World. Hansal is the director and showrunner with Vaibhav Vishal, Karan Vyas, Felix Von Stumm, Hema Gopinath, Sehaj Maini and Yashna Malhotra as the writers.