The “sublime coincidence” that brought Ben Kingsley to his finest role
Had Richard Attenborough been able to realise his passion project a lot sooner than he did, then there’s a distinct possibility the results of Gandhi wouldn’t be looked upon anywhere near as favourably as they are today.
The actor and filmmaker had wanted to make a biographical drama on the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi since the early 1960s, but events outside of his control repeatedly scuppered the project. David Lean’s plans to make his own version was merely one roadblock, but the most insurmountable was undoubtedly the identity of the actor to take on the title role.
As revealed in Attenborough’s own writings, his first port of call was Alec Guinness, who responded by saying he’d already rejected the part multiple times in various iterations. Ironically, Lean had considered casting Attenborough himself as Gandhi, with Albert Finney also turning it down and John Hurt deciding that there was not even a remote possibility he could do it justice.
Even more fascinatingly, Guinness wrote to Attenborough to offer his own thoughts on the casting conundrum, which proved to be hugely prophetic: He said: “A Hindu should play Gandhi. I still think you need an Indian – but this may well be an English name. Or even a no name.” As fate would have it, an actor of Indian descent who’d changed his name from Krishna Pandit Bhanji to Ben Kingsley for professional purposes was gaining attention treading the boards.
Prior to being cast as Gandhi, Kingsley had only appeared in one feature film – the 1972 thriller Fear is the Key – but he had plenty of experience on television and on stage. As the actor would tell GQ when reflecting on his most famous on-screen credits, the stars seemed to align at the perfect time.
“Richard Attenborough invited me to his house to have lunch with him,” he said. “But the extraordinary coincidence is that I was reading an illustrated biography of Mahatma Gandhi the week he invited me to his house.” Some people don’t believe in such coincidences, but it turns out that Attenborough wasn’t one of them.
Continuing, Kingsley offered that while he “was looking at photographs of this beautiful, great man, Attenborough called me and asked me to consider playing him.” He told his prospective director of the circumstances, too: “I remember saying to Richard, ‘I’m reading the biography of Mahatma Gandhi while we’re talking, and he said, ‘Of course you are.’ He was surrounded by sublime coincidences.”
The leading man’s Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ was one of just eight in total won by Gandhi at the Oscars, where it swept the board in all of the major categories. Attenborough’s decades-long persistence was vindicated, a star was born, and one of the greatest British films ever made was the result.
