Judi Dench ‘connected’ to India

(Cover) - EN Movies - Dame Judi Dench felt a “very powerful connection” to India when shooting her new movie, claims the director.

The actress portrays Evelyn in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of ageing brits who travel to India. Evelyn has just been widowed and decides the trip will help shake up her life.

The journey was just as important for Judi, says the movie’s director John Madden.

“Judi was very, very affected by the place. She felt a very, very powerful connection to it I think and I think will maintain that connection. I think everybody was very affected by it, you can’t not be,” he told Cover Media.

The movie also includes performances by Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie and Penelope Wilton.

Some of the cast had been before but others were total novices, and the experience wasn’t for everyone.

“I think everybody was very, very affected by it. Tom was very taken aback by it, he found the place interesting but I think quite incomprehensible,” John recalled. “Celia had been there before as a younger woman.

“Maggie has visited before and was, I think, sitting back and smiling to herself at the prospect of what was going to hit other people. When I told her that the hotel where we were going to be shooting was an hour-and-a-half out of where we were staying, she said, ‘Well I wouldn’t have come if you’d told me.’ I said, ‘Are you aware that that’s a line in the film?!’”

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is released in the UK on February 24.

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