In March, Hotel Mumbai, a film inspired by the 2008 terror attacks at locations in the Indian city, including the Taj Hotel, will premiere in theaters nationwide. What you might not know is that this film has a St. Louis connection—city native and Chaminade alum Mike Gabrawy is a producer on the project.
The film, which stars Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) and Armie Hammer (Call Me by Your Name), centers on the four-day siege—November 26 to 29—of the Taj Hotel. Ten terrorists from Pakistan terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba raided various locations in Mumbai, killing 164 people. Thirty-one were killed at the hotel. Staff members lost their lives trying to secure safety for the hotel's guests.
This isn't the first true story Gabrawy has explored in a film. SLM interviewed Gabrawy in 2017 about the Daniel Radcliffe–starring Jungle, based on the survival story of Yossi Ghinsberg. Ghinsberg, an Israeli adventurer, was stranded for three weeks in the Bolivian Amazon jungle.
Of Hotel Mumbai, Gabrawy said: "It's now, unfortunately, become such a commonplace to have these attacks. So we launched the film right after the Paris [Bataclan] attacks, and everyone was saying it's tough material. Who wants to go to the theater and watch the news? And I think what it does is it shows a really holistic view of these kids, the terrorists, brainwashing children, and what ordinary people put in a situation are capable of."
Watch the trailer below:
