2012-06-25T16:38:00.001+05:30

Gregory David Roberts

Gregory David Roberts (born June 1952) (born Gregory John Peter Smith) is an Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980, and fled to India where he lived for ten years.

Life & Career

Roberts had become addicted to heroin after his marriage ended, and he lost custody of his young daughter. In his efforts to finance his drug habit, Roberts became known as the "Building Society Bandit" and the "Gentleman Bandit", because he had chosen to rob only institutions with adequate insurance, he would wear a three-piece suit, and he always said "please" and "thank you" to the people he robbed. Roberts believed at the time that in this way he was lessening the brutality of his acts, but later in his life he admitted that people only gave him money because he had made them afraid. He escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980. In 1990, Roberts was captured in Frankfurt after being caught smuggling heroin into the country. He was extradited to Australia and served a further six years in prison, two of which were spent in solitary confinement. According to Roberts, he escaped prison again during that time, but then he relented and smuggled himself back into jail. His intention was to serve the rest of his sentence to give himself the chance to be reunited with his family. During his second stay in Australian prison, Roberts began writing the novel Shantaram. The manuscript was destroyed by prison wardens, twice, while Roberts was writing it.

After leaving prison, Roberts was able to finally finish and publish his novel, Shantaram. The book's name comes from the name his best friend's mother gave him, which means "Man of Peace," or "Man of God's Peace." There is debate as to how much of Shantaram is based on true events or is a conflation of real life and fantasy.

Roberts lived in Melbourne, Germany, and France and finally returned to Mumbai, where he set up charitable foundations to assist the city's poor with health care coverage. He was finally reunited with his daughter. He got engaged to Francoise Sturdza, who is the president of the Hope for India Foundation. Roberts also wrote the original screenplay for the movie adaptation of Shantaram. In 2009, Roberts was named a Zeitz Foundation Ambassador for Community. Ambassadors help raise awareness and shape activities in their areas.

Interview Platform

Writers Special

Interview withGregory David Roberts

Q1:It’s been a while since we touched base with you so what exciting things havehappened in the last two years?

A1: Many, manythings. For example, I worked as a philosophical consultant for a majorcorporation. The vision of the CEO was to transform his company, to make it themost ethical, clean & green, forward thinking corporation in the world. Hehired me to provide the philosophical foundation for the transformation. It wasa very rewarding experience, working with a team that transformed the way10,000 people work and think about the world. And now the project is beingscaled-up to reach the parent company, which has 90,000 employees across theworld.

Ialso worked on The Elders project, which has people with very high moralauthority, such as Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, JimmyCarter, Kofi Annan and others, giving their guidance to the world in a councilof wise elders. I organized the conference of world thinkers that was the basisfor all the foundation documents for The Elders, and I wrote the formalconstitution for the group.

Mypayment for work on that project with The Elders was to have Aung San Suu Kyiincorporated as an Elder In Absentia: that’s what I asked for as payment, andThe Elders all agreed that it was a good idea. Now there is an empty chair atevery meeting of The Elders, with a plaque in front of it bearing Aung San SuuKyi’s name. And that empty chair will remain until she is free to take herrightful place amongst The wise Elders.

Aswell, I’ve written the screenplays for 2 new movies, which will go intoproduction in Hollywood next year. I’m due to write 2 more this year, after thenovel is completed.

I’malso working on the ShantaramOpera, which should be in performance internationally from nextyear.

Thebig project in the last couple of years, however, has been the sequel to Shantaram, which is thenew novel, called TheMountain Shadow.

Q2:I read in one of your interviews that your life took a ‘dramatic change in1991’ – what brought about that change and what made you take control of yourdestiny?

A2: My life hasmoved through a lot of dramatic changes – and that’s still happening, I’m gladto say. But the biggest and most dramatic change of direction happened when Iwas recaptured after living for 10 years on the run as a wanted man, in 1990,and I was placed into the terrorist prison in Preungesheim, Germany. I plannedan escape from that prison, and was all set to make the break, when I had avision of my Mother’s face, and of her pain, and I knew that I had to change mylife, and stop being so selfish and self-destructive.

Igave up all drugs in the moment of that vision of my Mother’s face. I haven’thad a drink of alcohol or smoked a cigarette or taken any drugs of any kindsince that day, 20 years ago. I left the world of crime and the life of anoutlaw, and focussed on my creative work, and on serving the interests of myloved ones.

Thatdecision – that dramatic change – has allowed me to support my family, to lookafter my Mother and Father, to establish a charity in Bombay, to create thenovel Shantaram,to write movies, to work as a philosophical consultant, to move in the circlesof creative friends such as Madonna and Johnny Depp and Sir Richard Branson, tobecome an ambassador for Medecins Sans Frontieres and other organisations, andto meet my wife, Princess Francoise, and to work with her in her Heart ForIndia Foundation (www.heartforindia.org).

Q3:You are in the midst of writing your next book The Mountain Shadow, what was theinspiration behind it and how much of the book this time is inspired from yourown reality?

A3: The newnovel, The MountainShadow, is the third in the ShantaramTrilogy. It begins about 2 years after the events at the endof Shantaram.Lin is still in Bombay, working with the Bombay mafia. All of the characterswho were still standing at the end of Shantaram goon in the new novel, and several new important characters are introduced.

Theinspiration for TheMountain Shadow is the theme of the search. This is thesearch for meaning and purpose in life, the search for love, the search foridentity, the search for home, the search for peace: the existential searchthat defines and fills the lives of all of us, all over the world.

Aswith the novel Shantaram,the experiences in TheMountain Shadow are derived from my own real experiences, andthe characters, dialogue, and narrative structure are all created.

Q4:How have you evolved as a writer and human being from Shantaram to The Mountain Shadow?

A4: That’s atough question to answer, in the personal sense: how have I evolved as a personsincewriting Shantaram?I think that the experience of interacting with thousands and thousands ofpeople all over the world, who’ve read Shantaram, has given me much more hope,and has inspired me with a much stronger passion to struggle for the thingsthat matter now, and will be critical to any chance we human beings have toachieve our destiny: liberty, justice, fairness, creativity, constructivecooperation, and sustainability.

Asa writer, I’ve developed a sense of filling chapters with as rich a sense ofthe world I’m creating as possible. The chapters in The Mountain Shadow arelonger, and more profoundly layered than in my previous work. Each chapter isan expression of The Search, and each chapter has a structural integrity thatshould, I hope, make it a self-contained journey that is, however, anintegrated part of the great journey of the novel as a whole.

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Gregory David Roberts