Remote farms and temples in India are not Robert Lantos’ usual stomping grounds.
More typical haunts for the multi-millionaire Toronto film producer would be the Caribbean island of St. Bart’s, Bel Air, or his vacation home in Muskoka.
But Lantos, who has produced such films as The Sweet Hereafter, Sunshine and the recently Oscar-nominated Being Julia, is currently bumping along pot-holed tracks between Delhi, Calcutta and the Bay of Bengal because his first cousin, the Maharaja Sivarama Swami, asked him to.
As one of the most senior members of the Hare Krishna movement, Sivarama Swami (born Peter Letia) is revered by Krishna followers, in much the same way aspiring actors in this country bow to Lantos.
Recently, the state-owned Hungarian TV network approached the cousins to see if they would agree to be followed on a two-week trek to various Krishna temples throughout India.
“He’s been asking me for years to come visit him,” said Lantos, who was reluctant to talk about the trip. “Then I figured what the hell? It could be fascinating,” he said in an interview just before he hopped on a plane from Toronto to Delhi. He was late getting organized and was frantically trying to arrange for the mandatory shots for malaria, cholera and meningitis.
Both men are well known in their native Budapest, where they were born in 1949 to Holocaust survivors who then emigrated to Montreal. Lantos now calls Toronto home. His cousin lives in England, India and Hungary, a country that recognizes Krishna as an official religion.
The two spent summers and family holidays together in their youth.
When they were in their twenties, Sivarama Swami found Lord Krishna, gave up sex, and devoted his life to the Hindu faith. Lantos found the movies, (forget a vow of chastity), and founded Alliance Communications, which has grown into Canada’s largest film and entertainment company.
Their career paths are polar opposites. But neither man has lived a life that can be called commonplace or dull. In the 1970s, Sivarama Swami discovered the teachings of Srila Prabhupada’s and became an initiated disciple. Over the years, he has opened and managed temples in the United Kingdom, in India and his native Hungary. That’s where the Vraja Dhama farm community project is situated, in what the locals call, “Krishna Valley” — 450 acres of prime land, and a 1,000-square-metre temple.
Sivarama Swami, who semi-retired a few years ago, has also written several books about Krishna consciousness.
As Lantos noted, his cousin got out of his line of work about the same time that he (Lantos) merged Alliance with his one-time arch-rival, Atlantis Communications Inc. “It had been his life’s work, as Alliance had been mine.”
Lantos now runs a film production company, Serendipity Point Films in Toronto. Over the past 25 years, he’s worked with acclaimed directors such as Istvan Szabo (Sunshine and Being Julia. The latter has garnered Annette Bening a nomination for best actress), David Cronenberg (Crash), Norman Jewison (The Statement), Denys Arcand (Stardom), and Atom Egoyan (Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter and, currently in post-production, Where the Truth Lies, starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon).
Lantos and his cousin (their mothers, who are sisters, live together in Toronto) make an odd couple. The two are now visiting spiritual hot spots like Vrindavana (where Lord Krishna was born) and Puri (another sacred place). There are no hotels. “You couldn’t even put a single star on these places,” quipped one Lantos intimate.
All in all, the trip should make for fascinating television.
The journey will be turned into a one-hour documentary slated to air the end of March in Hungary. Lantos said he had no expectations, and no clue really what to expect. “My cousin’s extremely well known in these parts. People fall at his feet. It should be interesting,” he said.
But he was emphatic he would not be sporting the traditional Hare Krishna gear, the flowing robes and scarves. “I won’t be wearing a skirt,” said Lantos. “I’ll keep my pants on.”
When the two men part company in a week, Sivarama Swami will go back to Hungary, to his books, chanting, and statues of Buddha.
Lantos, on the other hand, will catch a flight from Delhi to Los Angeles where he rents a house. He’ll stay there until the Academy Awards on Feb. 27.
Given Being Julia’s nomination, he’s sure to have good seats. And maybe a statue of his own to contemplate — an Oscar.
The Globe and Mail: Movie mogul joins maharajah on the road to enlightenment
