Downton Abbey: A New Era: The Crawley family with Maggie Smith to return to screens in India on THIS date

The popular Crawley family is back with another exciting story. Having entertained audiences with six successful seasons and a feature film, Downton Abbey: A New Era is all set to hit Indian theatres. Sequel to the British historical drama series and movie, Downton Abbey 2 marks the much-anticipated cinematic return of the global phenomenon. Directed by Simon Curtis, the film reunites the beloved cast as they go on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the Dowager Countess' newly inherited villa. 

Adding to the drama, this is also the era of movie making where an entire film unit has landed up at Downton Abbey to shoot a movie, as the world makes the transition from silent pictures to talkies. A New Era sees many familiar faces returning for the second Downton Abbey movie – and they'll be joined by some new, exciting additions too.

Talking about working yet again with an ensemble cast, many of whom are reprising their roles, Simon Curtis, the director, said, “I’ve been very lucky in that some of the things I’d made in television, like David Copperfield and Cranford, meant I’d had experience working with a big ensemble cast. What’s intimidating about directing Downton, (which I’m sure all the previous directors have also felt), is that there’s no such thing as an easy scene in Downton." He further explained in his statement that there might be as many as four mini scenes within one bigger scene and four different clusters of conversations that all require coverage from different angles and shooting all that takes time. 

He mentioned of the scenes that was in particular a challenge to shoot. "In this film, we had the usual ensemble of actors, then added in the crew and actors for the film within the film, plus our own crew and that amounted to over 50 setups for one particular dinner scene across three days. It was a relief to get to the end of that scene,” he said. 

Alongside the Crawley sisters, Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) and Edith Pelham, now Marchioness of Hexham (Laura Carmichael), the series also marks the return of fan-favourite character Lady Violet, played by Maggie Smith.

The film Downton Abbey: A New Era will not hit theatres in India on June 3.