IAN RICHARDSON AS NEHRU : SURVIVING AN UNEXPECTED SCENARIO

While dining not long ago in a posh Beverly Hills hotel, Ian Richardson, the veteran British actor, recalled his stay 15 months ago in less comfortable surroundings halfway around the world--in New Delhi, India.

Actually, the word stay is not precisely accurate in this case. Richardson was, in fact, imprisoned for five days at the Taj Palace Hotel, where he was quartered during the filming of the television miniseries, “Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy,” currently airing Sundays on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.”

His confinement occurred during the violent riots triggered by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Admittedly hazy in recalling dates, the actor, however, had no difficulty remembering that fateful morning in 1984--Wednesday, Oct. 31--when two Sikh security guards cut down the 66-year-old prime minister in a hail of gunfire as she strolled through her residential compound.

Two weeks earlier, Richardson--cast as Mrs. Gandhi’s father, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, in “Mountbatten”--had visited the popular leader in her garden, site of the assassination.

“She was actually quite a small woman and quite frail,” he recalled. “I noticed she wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest, and there seemed to be a lack of security generally. She appeared to be relaxed, but her hands were very tensely clenched around her waist.

“We talked about my work,” Richardson continued, “and I remember she whispered two words about my portrayal of her father--’I approve.’ ”

The day before Mrs. Ghandi was gunned down, the film crew had completed two months’ work in New Delhi on the six-part series that began airing Jan. 26 on PBS and ends March 2.

“If we had not finished, we would never have finished,” Richardson said.

“We were confined to the hotel; we were not let out. My driver, a Sikh, was killed on Thursday--decapitated. It was slightly worrying because the hotel was filling up with Sikhs who could afford the price, seeking sanctuary.

“The phones were out; they pulled the plugs. There were no flights, no trains out of New Delhi. Food was running out. . . .”

Richardson and the others finally were permitted to leave New Delhi for Sri Lanka the day after Mrs. Gandhi’s funeral. Because of the strained political atmosphere--even before the assassination--the Indian government refused to allow riot scenes filmed in their country; thus, they were shot later in Sri Lanka.

Nonetheless, American producer Judith de Paul--”because of her skill and bullying”--was permitted to film at sites of historical monuments and inside the presidential palace, Richardson said, “places denied to Richard Attenborough when he made ‘Gandhi.’ ”

Yet, India’s minister of culture insisted on looking over the script (by David Butler) and assigned a “spy” to observe the filming.

Still, a few scenes that might have been objectionable were overlooked when the “spy” was cleverly diverted from the set, Richardson recalled.

One scene involved a tender moment between Nehru and Lady Edwina Mountbatten, played by Janet Suzman.

In real life, the two were rumored to have had an affair, Richardson said, but their intimacy was dramatized with delicacy.

“The way I’m playing it,” Suzman was quoted as saying, “is to show the way she lit up when he (Nehru) was around. She’s delighted to be in his company.”

Initially rejected for the Lord Mountbatten role because he was “not tall enough and not good-looking enough,” Richardson landed the part of Nehru with a stroke of good luck, “a curious coincidence,” as he put it.

His photograph, which had been submitted for the starring role, was reproduced on a copying machine that had been incorrectly set, the actor said.

“It came out very dark. It was left on the producer’s desk and when she saw it, I was her choice (for Nehru). It was a surprise to everyone, including myself.”

At 5 feet, 9 1/2 inches tall and age 51, Richardson was a nearly perfect physical match for Nehru during the period of the drama--the two years before England granted India independence.

Before the cameras started rolling in August of 1984 outside of London, Richardson popped in a pair of brown contact lenses, had some photos taken and sent them to Mrs. Gandhi.

“I got a report back that she had wept,” Richardson said, “because of my resemblance to her father.”

For many years the leading actor of the Royal Shakespeare Company in England but more recently appearing on TV (“Mistral’s Daughter”) and in movies (“Brazil”), Richardson calls the Nehru role “the most testing of all I’ve played.”

He accepted the challenge with some reservations, particularly after British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher strongly advised him during a dinner together almost three years ago at 10 Downing Street “to get it right. Otherwise, my friend Mrs. Gandhi will be very upset.”

Determined to do just that, Richardson spent three months preparing, including a week’s visit to New Delhi, where he listened to hours of Nehru recordings, watched newsreel footage to perfect his mannerisms and talked to people who had known him personally.

Regarded as the architect of modern India, Nehru spent many of his early years in England and, in fact, was educated at Cambridge University. He even studied law in London, where he passed the bar examination in 1912. So, Richardson, born in Scotland, had little difficulty mastering the former minister’s pronunciation.

“He always wrote his speeches in English,” the actor said. “He was a great orator. He modeled himself after Winston Churchill. There was a curious swoop in his speech--definitely Churchillian--and the way he laughed was quite distinctive.”

Describing himself as a “slightly formal, conservative Englishman,” Richardson still marvels at the respect he was accorded by Indian film extras, as many as 1,000.

“I can speak no Hindu, but they called me Panditji,” he remembered. “Pandit means teacher, or leader. It’s respectful or affectionate to add ji.

“I was leading a double life,” he added with a thin smile and a trace of pride. “I had done my research.”