Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Beatles’ ‘love affair with India’ wows audiences

Beatles’ ‘love affair with India’ wows audiences

A DOCUMENTARY about The Beatles’ deep love affair with India is being sold all over the world, but how the 92-minute film came to be made can now be told for the first time.

As reported in Eastern Eye at the end of May, The Beatles and India had its world premiere at the UK Asian Film Festival in London on June 6 this year. The man who is really responsible for this iconic documentary is its producer, Reynold D’Silva, whose core business, the Silva Screen Music Group, is putting out albums with film music and sound tracks.


Interviewed at his offices in Camden, north London, he told Eastern Eye his company had an association with one of The Beatles.

“I had the idea probably in the late 1980s when we were working with George Harrison’s HandMade Films,” recalled D’Silva. “We released four soundtracks from his company between 1988 and 1992.”

Harrison was one of the producers of the 1989 British black comedy fantasy film, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, which was directed by Bruce Robinson and starred Richard E Grant and Rachel Ward.

D’Silva, who is of Goan origin, was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) and came to the UK in the early 1970s.

He said: “The idea has been with me ever since the 1980s to try and do some sort of historical document on The Beatles and India. In 2015, I heard within the space of a month from two people that the ashram was (re)opening in Rishikesh. And I thought, ‘Oh, now it’s time to embark on that idea.’”

INSET 2 Beatles in India George Patti with garlands 22 November 2021 George and Patti with garlands

Rishikesh in the Himalayas was where The Beatles and their partners spent several weeks with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968 and had a productive time making music outside a studio.

“But what happened was that I got diverted because someone came to me about doing a film on the 50th anniversary of Sergeant Pepper’s,” said D’Silva. “So, we did.” The result was a film, It Was Fifty Years Ago Today!

“The subtitle was The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper & Beyond,” he added. “It did pretty well through Netflix. It was shown on various airlines and in theatres in Europe. And then once that finished, we started on this project.”

One of the first to be recruited by D’Silva was the film’s director, Ajoy Bose, a long time Guardian journalist in Delhi “who was also a mad Beatles fan. He had written a book, Across the Universe: The Beatles in India. So we approached him.”

This was in October 2018, when Bose was a speaker at a seminar at Monmouth University in New Jersey in the US on the subject of The White Album which The Beatles released in 1968.

“Many of those songs were written in India,” D’Silva pointed out. “I sent a colleague of mine from London – Peter Compton – to meet him. He became the film’s co-director. And then I met Ajoy a few weeks later in Bombay in December 2018 – he came in from Delhi. And we started filming four months after that.

“Films aren’t our core business. So, it took a long time to put it together. Also, our hands had to be held because we had to navigate through the film world with all the different rights.”

INSET 1b USE THIS keep background blue Lennon plaque Reynold DSilva pic two Reynold D’Silva

The documentary has had extraordinary success. D’Silva said: “We’ve sold the film to Brit Box for the US and Canada, to HBO in South America, and to Channel 4 here in the UK. It’s coming out in January, but it’s already available on Sky and other stores as well. And we’ve just got a deal with RAI in Italy and NHK in Japan. We just don’t have anybody in India, at the moment. But I’m pretty sure we will. We did have an offer, but I didn’t really pick up on it.”

The film has also done well in Spain. “We came back from Spain two weeks ago. The film was shown there at three festivals. There’s an equivalent of a Nehru cultural centre in Valladolid, the old capital of Spain, about a two-hour drive from Madrid.

“There’s a guy over there called Guillermo Rodríguez, a Spaniard who runs the Casa de la India, which is affiliated to the Indian embassy and to the local government and to the national government. And he’s done some wonderful work there. On one floor, he had a Beatles and India exhibition. And on the next floor, he had a Ravi Shankar exhibition. His wife, who is also Spanish, is an Indian classical dancer. He is really championing our film.”

The documentary does not include any music from The Beatles. However, D’Silva has separately released an album, Songs inspired by the film: The Beatles and India.

“We recorded 19 songs that The Beatles either wrote in India or have an Indian connection. And when I say an Indian connection, for instance, we included Norwegian Wood (This Bird has flown). That was the first time that The Beatles used a sitar on their recordings.”

INSET 3 Ashram in India GettyImages 1015845770 The ashram in Rishikesh where The Beatles lived.

Bose was interviewed recently on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight by the presenter James Coomarasamy who set the scene for listeners: “A new documentary about The Beatles is coming out examining the Fab Four’s relationship with India. In 1968, John Paul, George and Ringo famously went to a Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas, accompanied by George’s wife, Patti, who’d introduced them. But the love affair between the band and the country went far beyond that.”

Bose emphasised: “It was a twoway affair, definitely. There’s a long journey with George picking up that sitar on that film set of Help. And then, step by step, India pulled in George and along with him the rest of The Beatles. Something happened to George after he fell in love with India because George’s stature suddenly grew in the band. He was bringing in something very new to the band, which was looking for something. So George’s India affair very much suited The Beatles when they were trying to reinvent themselves. For George, India would become a spiritual home.”

The film deals with how a new generation of Indian musicians is still inspired by The Beatles. “I think the most incredible thing is how these young musicians venerate a band which was (active) in the last century,” commented Bose.

“You hear these musicians (talk) about how much the Beatles still mean to them. To talk with such passion is really touching."

More For You

Minouche Shafik

Shafik served as deputy governor for markets and banking at the Bank of England between August 2014 and February 2017.

Reuters

Starmer appoints Minouche Shafik as chief economic adviser in reshuffle

Highlights:

  • Minouche Shafik named chief economic adviser to Keir Starmer.
  • Darren Jones moves into Downing Street role; James Murray replaces him.
  • Wider reshuffle includes changes in Starmer’s private office and communications.
  • Appointment comes ahead of a budget expected to include further tax rises.

Prime minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, as his chief economic adviser. The appointment comes as he looks to strengthen his team ahead of what is expected to be a difficult end to the year.

Keep ReadingShow less
modi putin

Before their formal meeting, Putin offered Modi a ride in his Aurus limousine.

X/@narendramodi

Six key takeaways from the SCO summit

INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi met Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China.

Modi pressed for ending the Ukraine conflict at the earliest, reaffirmed India’s long-standing ties with Russia, and discussed trade and border issues with Xi.

Keep ReadingShow less
Afghanistan earthquake

Afghan volunteers and Taliban security personnel carry an earthquake victim evacuated by a military helicopter from the Nurgal district of Kunar province onn September 1, 2025.

Getty Images

Afghanistan earthquake kills more than 800, thousands injured

A MAJOR rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan on Monday after a powerful earthquake and several aftershocks destroyed homes in a remote mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, according to Taliban authorities.

The quake struck just before midnight and was felt as far as Kabul and in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ganpati festival

The Ganpati festival celebrates Ganesha as the god of new beginnings, and the god of wisdom and intelligence. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Hindu community centre in London damaged in fire after Ganapati Visarjan event

A HINDU community centre in east London caught fire on Saturday evening, causing major damage to the building. The London Fire Brigade brought the fire under control and confirmed that no injuries were reported.

The incident took place at the Shree Sorathia Prajapati Community Centre on Cleveland Road in Ilford, which had been decorated for a Ganapati Visarjan event attended by members of the Hindu community.

Keep ReadingShow less
Modi ,Xi & Putin

Narendra Modi talks with Vladimir Putin and Xi jinping ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre in Tianjin on September 1, 2025.

Getty Images

SCO declaration slams Pahalgam attack, calls for united action on terror

Highlights:

  • SCO condemns terror attack in Pahalgam and echoes India’s stance on “double standards”.
  • Leaders call for justice for perpetrators of attacks in Pahalgam and Balochistan.
  • Declaration criticises Israeli military strikes in Gaza causing civilian casualties.
  • SCO stresses UN’s central role in global counter-terrorism strategy.

THE SHANGHAI Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Monday condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam and agreed with India’s position that “double standards” in tackling terrorism are not acceptable.

Keep ReadingShow less