Charlie Hunnam and His Longtime Love Morgana McNelis Spent a ‘Dream Month’ in India Long Before ‘Shantaram’
Charlie Hunnam is back on TV in the new AppleTV+ series Shantaram. Eight years after saying goodbye to his character Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy, Hunnam is taking on the lead role of Lin Ford — an Australian fugitive who goes on the run and attempts to “get lost in the city of Bombay.” A portion of the series was filmed on location in India, but that wasn’t the Brit’s first visit to the country. He actually visited India with his girlfriend Morgana McNelis back in 2019.
Charlie Hunnam’s new TV series was delayed for years
Shantaram has been in the works for years, but filming was delayed numerous times amid production issues and the pandemic. The series is based on a 2003 internationally best-selling novel of the same name from Australian author Gregory David Roberts.
In a plot description of the TV series, Apple says that Shantaram follows Hunnam’s Lin as he attempts to “get lost in vibrant and chaotic 1980s Bombay” and get away from his past.
“Alone in an unfamiliar city, Lin struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from in this new place. After falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla, Lin must choose between freedom or love and the complications that come with it,” the description reads.
Production mostly took place in Thailand because the Delta variant stopped them from shooting in India like they originally planned. Hunnam was finally able to get to India earlier this year to film in Bhopal and Mumbai, but production wasn’t able to return like they’d hoped.
He spent a ‘dream month’ in India with his girlfriend long before filming ‘Shantaram’
Hunnam has been attached to the project since 2019, and he wanted to experience Indian culture firsthand before filming began. So, he and his longtime girlfriend, jewelry designer Morgana McNelis, planned a month-long trip to the country that he described as a “dream.”
“My partner and I went to India and had just a dream month there where we showed up and only had a hotel room for the first night in Mumbai and then we just wanted to be footloose and fancy-free and go wherever and see whatever India wanted to show us. It was really like an amazing trip and I fell madly in love with the people, the geography, with the culture, the food, everything. So, I was really upset that we weren’t able to shoot in India,” Hunnam told Pink Villa.
Hunnam says he is grateful that he got to spend that time in India and “get a sense” of his own relationship with the country, instead of showing up to film having never been there “to pretend like I knew what was going on.”
Charlie Hunnam’s girlfriend Morgana McNelis documented their trip on social media
Hunnam doesn’t have any social media accounts, but he does make the occasional appearance on McNelis’ Instagram. In March 2019, the jewelry designer posted a photo of her and Hunnam from their India trip that featured the two of them celebrating Holi, a Hindu festival that welcomes the arrival of spring and marks new beginnings.
In the photo, Hunnam and McNelis smile for the camera as he holds her close with his arm around her shoulders. The pair is covered in paint — looking like a pair of tie-dyed t-shirts — with smiles on their faces.
“Happy Holi!!! ??#indialove,” McNelis wrote in the caption.
Shantaram starring Charlie Hunnam premieres October 14 on Apple TV+.
