 GEORGE TOWN, April 23 — Penang will play host Indian Summers, a major new 10-part British and American television drama series to be filmed by a UK production house. The production company, New Pictures Ltd, in collaboration with local company, Biscuit Films Sdn Bhd, will film the 50-episode series at various locations on the island including the Crag Hotel and Woodside Bungalow on Penang Hill, the Penang state museum and Suffolk House. “When I was first taken to the Crag Hotel, I knew we had the beginnings of a great place to shoot,” said New Pictures chief executive and Indian Summers executive producer Charlie Pattinson in a press conference today. Indian Summers is a series set in Simla, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, and will chart the dying days of the British Raj from 1932 to 1947. Pattinson said the hunt for the right location was an exhaustive one, taking him to New Delhi, Simla, Chocin and Munnar in India, Candy in Sri Lanka, Johor Baru, Kuala Lumpur, Frasers Hill, Cameron Highlands and Singapore. “...but nothing was quite right until I came to Penang,” Pattinson said. “Unlike Simla, Penang Hill has been beautifully preserved, George Town is rich with historic buildings and the island is somewhere I felt confident that a large international cast and crew could happily spend a year of their lives.” Crag Hotel will be the set as the Old Simla British Club, he added. The producer said filming will begin on April 28 with a fully integrated British and Malaysian cast and crew, and is expected to continue until the end of October. The production company signed an agreement with the state government today at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office to lease the Crag Hotel from now until December 2015 at RM650,000. New Pictures will also lease the Woodside Bungalow,at RM120,000 annually, for a period of five years starting from this month. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the production company will also restore the dilapidated buildings to be turned into sets for the series. “The producers will be working closely with the state to create a sustainable filming infrastructure for returning future series as well as ensuring the present filming locations will be safeguarded and properly maintained throughout the filming duration,” Lim said. MMail
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