The Letters: Recreating 50 Years of History. One State. No Compromise.
- Project: The Letters
- Format: Hollywood Feature Film ($20M Budget)
- Client: Cinema West
- Credit: Producer
- Locations: Goa (doubling for Calcutta & Europe), Kolkata, Delhi.
- Cast: Juliet Stevenson, Max von Sydow, Rutger Hauer, Tilotoma Shome, Vivek Gomber
The Challenge: A Time Machine With a Budget
Biopics are notoriously difficult. A biopic spanning 50 years of Mother Teresa's life, requiring 1940s pre-independence Calcutta, the Vatican, and rural European convents? That is a logistical minefield.
The Director, William Riead, needed to capture the dust, the poverty, and the colonial grandeur of mid-century India. But shooting a period film in modern-day Kolkata is a nightmare of telegraph poles, skyscrapers, and impossible traffic control. We needed a location that looked like 1946 but functioned like a controlled set.
Furthermore, moving a unit between India and Europe for the convent scenes would have blown the budget before the first slate was clapped. We needed India to be the world.
The Solution: The "Goa Double"
We didn't just facilitate this shoot; we produced it. Tony Cordeaux served as a full Producer, orchestrating a strategy that relied on India’s chameleon-like geography.
- The Ultimate Location Hack: We utilized Goa’s Portuguese colonial architecture to double for British Raj-era Calcutta. The crumbling mansions and quiet village squares of Goa provided the perfect, controllable backdrop that modern Kolkata could not.
- Doubling Europe: Instead of flying the unit to Albania or Ireland, we found locations in India that—with the right lens and set dressing—passed flawlessly for European convents and rural landscapes. We saved the production millions in travel logistics without sacrificing a single frame of production value.
- Scale Management: This wasn't a run-and-gun doc. We managed a massive footprint: 1,000+ extras, period vehicles, heavy art department builds, and a crew large enough to invade a small country. We coordinated with 4-time Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Jack N. Green (Unforgiven) to ensure the logistics served the lighting, not the other way around.
The Outcome
The Letters was released theatrically and is now streaming globally on Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV.
Critics praised the film's "handsome and commendably expensive looking" production design—proof that our location strategy worked. We proved that India isn't just a location for "India stories"; it is a versatile, world-class backlot for major period cinema.
What The Client Said
"If your intention is to film in India, the only place you need to go is Goa Film Services. It's a one-stop shop. You show up, they take it from there. Tony Cordeaux didn't just help with the project when we arrived in India, he made it all happen. I left India with what was to become an award-winning film, and I owe a major part of that to Tony and Goa Film Services."
— William Riead, Writer/Director/Producer
Behind the Scenes...
The Official Trailer...
Services Provided
- Full Production Service: Tony Cordeaux credited as Producer.
- Location Doubling: Scouting and managing locations in Goa to stand in for Calcutta and Europe.
- Art Department & Set Construction: Transforming streets into 1940s period sets.
- Crowd Management: Coordinating 1,000+ extras and period costumes.
- Union & Bureaucracy: Managing foreign crew visas and local union regulations for a major feature.
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