To commemorate its centenary year, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel presented a film The Taj of Apollo Bunder as part of its year-long celebrations.

Packing 100 years of history of a hotel that has been witness to significant events and has been the host to kings, queens, state leaders, freedom fighters, movie stars and to people from all walks of life, Zafar Hai, director of the film, has produced a 50-minute slick, lively film that brings out the grandeur of a heritage hotel. It seems as if the rich interiors and walls of the rooms speak of the days gone by and the vitality that exists today.

As commentator who takes the viewer from one interesting phase of history to another, actor Roshan Sheth succeeds in holding on to your attention. "I knew he would be perfect for the job," Hai told Gulf News.

"Roshan is quite British in his personality and manner of speech." The British background in the first half of Taj's history is very much there.

Says Ravi Dubey, executive producer of the film and Senior Vice-president, Corporate Affairs, the Indian Hotels Company Ltd, "Over the last 25 years, whenever I have walked through the heritage wing of the Taj in Mumbai, I have often wondered what stories the walls would have to tell if they could speak. One day, I was asked by Krishna Kumar, ex-managing director and now vice-chairman of the company, to go through a manuscript written by Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi after 20 years of research that recounted the history of the Taj." As he reads it, the idea of making a film originated and consequently Hai was approached.

The making of the film was a wonderful, rewarding experience, tells Hai and remarks how the hotel "evokes fond feelings for many of us. All of us have special associations with the Taj and in a way we feel it belongs to us. In fact, I got married in this hotel." Filming the Taj during the peak season during November and December had its problems but Hai's team worked at odd hours when fewer visitors or guests moved around.

The hotel was born out of a dream of Jamsetji N. Tata, the founder of India's premier business house, the Tata Group. Standing on the waterfront in south Mumbai's Apollo Bunder, the Taj Hotel commands as much attention from sightseeing hangers-on as the nearby historic Gateway of India built to commemorate the visit of King George V and his wife Queen Mary in 1911.

Built at a cost of £500,000, this "labour of love" opened its doors to its first 17 guests on December 16, 1903. No luxury was spared for the hotel guests and the latest contrivances‚ included electricity, fans, electric irons, resident doctor and modern sanitation. The imposing edifice of the hotel is an amalgam of styles that range from Moorish domes and Florentine Renaissance to Oriental and Rajput. The official engineer and architect was an Englishman W. A. Chambers who completed the project initiated by two Indian architects.

Whilst its long list of luminaries vary from M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to Aldous Huxley, Somerset Maugham and George Bernard Shaw, Mohammed Ali Jinnah regularly visited his estranged wife when she was ill and staying at the hotel. In more recent times, the hotel's celebrity visitors include Mick Jagger, Margaret Thatcher, Prince Charles, Jacqueline Onassis and Bill Clinton.