New Pictures filmed the lavish period TV series Indian Summers on location in Penang, Malaysia, doubling the region for northern India. Set in 1932, the Channel 4 series tells a story of social drama during the dying days of the British Empire’s colonial rule.
Indian Summers is set in Simla, a provincial capital in northern India at the foot of the Himalayas, but the production team chose the Malaysian island of Penang as their filming location for the six-month shoot. The production was serviced locally by Biscuit Films.
Penang is on the west coast of Malaysia and is one of the most developed parts of the country. Capital Georgetown is Malaysia’s second-largest metropolitan area. The city has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008 and so the locations used for Indian Summers needed few changes to recreate the 30s setting.
Penang also hosted the filming of Mechanic: Resurrection, which shot in a number of locations around the world.
Malaysia is becoming more popular as an international filming location. The country offers a 30% production incentive and Pinewood Studios now has a facility in Johor near the southern border with Singapore. Netflix drama series Marco Polo was the first major production to use the site as a filming location and production base.
All five of Pinewood’s Malaysia stages were used, plus a mill space and two back lots. extra work spaces.
On literally the last day of my location scouting, having considered Sri Lanka and travelled around a lot of India, Singapore and Malaysia, I went up Penang Hill and breathed a sigh of relief. These properties were in a time warp: they absolutely summed up the idea of the British transporting their identity to a foreign land.
Charlie Pattinson, Executive Producer on Indian Summers
Malaysia is split in two by the South China Sea. Both east and west Malaysia have a similiar landscape with coastal plains rising to often densely-forested hills and mountains.
It has a tropical climate with very high temperatures. Days are hot and humid, while nights are much cooler. The rainy season in the east occurs between November and February. August is the wettest period in the west.
The average daytime temperature in Kuala Lumpur is 27C all year round.
