Australian filmmaker Anthony Maras known for several acclaimed and award-winning short films, especially the 2011 thriller The Palace, was blown away by the Emmy nominated documentary Surviving Mumbai. The makers of that movie were the first crew to shoot on ground after the attacks and spoke to many survivors including the staff and guests of the Taj hotel in Mumbai. The unedited footage of the interviews were what made him develop Hotel Mumbai along with co-writer John Collee. Hotel Mumbai features the likes of Dev Patel and Anupam Kher and is set to release on November 29 this year, on the 11th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
The filmmaker has spent over six months listening to the stories of survivors as part of his research. Maras says, "It all started when I watched Surviving Mumbai. We spent months in Mumbai to research. We got access to transcripts, tapes and spoke to survivors. We stayed at the Taj hotel for a month while we interviewed survivors, cops and staff of the hotel to get a picture of what happened that night. This film is not a documentary. It was meant to be an emotional ride that makes one feel empathy. What if I were placed in the middle of these attacks? We wanted to see more than statistics and headlines. There are perspectives of the victims here largely."
The film is all set to be released on November 29 across India with dubbed versions in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.