The Man Who Knew Infinity
Notes from Production
Production began early in August 2014 on The Man Who Knew Infinity, a film based on the book by Robert Kanigel about the life of world-renown mathematician Ramanujan. The film focuses on the bond that developed between Trinity College Fellow G.H. Hardy (played by Jeremy Irons) and the young Ramanujan (played by Dev Patel).
The story begins with Ramanujan’s early life as he developed his inspirational mathematics potential and was invited by Hardy to study at Cambridge. It was a difficult decision for the young man, to leave his young bride and his Braham culture behind. Cambridge at that time was a cold and harsh place for the young man who struggled not just in his studies but with the racism and condescension from the other Dons in the faculty.
The film has been written and directed by Matt Brown who brought in Ken Ono, the Asa Griggs Candler Professor from Emory University in Atlanta, an American mathematician who specializes in number theory, especially in integer partitions, modular forms, and the fields of interest to Ramanujan. Ken assisted the director with some of the dialogue in the film to make sure the two lead characters spoke in real ‘mathematics!’ He also taught Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel how to write formulas on blackboards in preparation for their on-screen scenes.
Ken had his own personal connection to Ramanujan. Ken’s father was also a mathematician and had responded to an appeal to help fund a statue to commemorate Ramanujan in his hometown in India. Sometime later, Ken was still a teenager, a flimsy airmail envelope covered in Indian stamps arrived at their house. It was a personal letter from Ramanujan’s widow, Janika, to thank him for the donation.
For the first time in its history, Trinity College at Cambridge allowed the film crew inside it’s grounds to shoot several scenes. One included a shot where Dev Patel as Ramanujan is introduced to the iconic punting races but is unkindly pushed into the River Cam by another student. This was covered by local paparazzi and made the press in India as ‘Dev Patel accidently ends in the river as he slipped and fell during filming!’ It was a real honour for the film crew to work inside Trinity and the quads were filled with extras dressed as professors. When the real ‘dinner bell’ rang promptly at 7.30 pm each evening it was sometimes difficult to tell the extras from the real professors who call Trinity home.
There were other poignant scenes as the film is set from 1912 to 1916 when the first world war was debated and fought. As Britain started to commemorate the start of the war and remember the dreadful carnage that ensued, our actors were creating scenes where opinions were aired as to the actions that would soon be taken in reality. One day, as his character G.H. Hardy, Jeremy Irons was reading a prop newspaper with the headline ‘Archduke Shot’ almost one hundred years to the day from the actual event.
The Man Who Knew Infinity should be in theatres towards the end of 2015.
Pamela Godfrey
Executive Producer
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt. (Charles M. Schulz)
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