Hollywood star at Melbourne party house

A legendary Melbourne ‘Captain’ has played host to the cast and crew of a Hollywood production.

Actor Charlie Hunnam was among the cast and crew who visited Captain Peter Janson’s Rutherglen House. Picture: MEDIA-MODE.COM

North Melbourne’s hipster strip Errol St was transformed into a bustling Mumbai marketplace this month for shooting on Hollywood drama series Shantaram.

But how does one turn Melbourne into Mumbai for all those interior shots, including the ones that brought down tigers and elephants in the days of the British Raj?

The 80-odd cast and crew had only to walk through the door at Rutherglen House, home of Melbourne’s resident Indophile, the legendary Captain Peter Janson.

Usually it’s powerbrokers, visiting English aristocracy and famous racing car drivers who gather at Janson’s fabulous Tuesday soirees.

Ted Baillieu has been known to break out in song along with Mike Brady, but on Tuesday it was Charlie Hunnam, along with cast and crew who entered Janson’s world when he was dashing aide de camp to the King of Bhutan.

With Melbourne being somewhat colder than the days when only mad dogs and Englishmen ventured out in the midday sun, velvet drapes were hung over fireplaces usually ablaze with fiercely burning logs.

The captain feels the cold. Otherwise, the heads of beasts that fell to the guns of big game hunters and touring royalty glowered down as usual from the walls.

Shantaram was adapted from Gregory David Roberts’ 2003 novel of the same name, in which a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict escapes from the old Pentridge Prison and flees to India.

Plagued with difficulties, the 10-part series originally began filming in Australia in October 2019 before moving to India a month later.

Hunnam and the film crew returned to Melbourne in May last year, but production was halted because of Covid.

Production has since resumed.