Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Liddell are also mother, father and daughter in real life, and just like in the movie they actually were a traveling Shakespeare troupe in India. Their other daughter, Jennifer Kendal, plays "Mrs. Bowen" and was the real life wife of Shashi Kapoor who plays Sanju.
One of nine productions that Indian actor Shashi Kapoor made with Merchant Ivory Productions. The films include Bombay Talkie (1970), Side Streets (1998), In Custody (1994), Les imposteurs (1988), Chaleur et Poussière (1983), The Householder (1963), Shakespeare-Wallah (1965), In Ismail's Custody (1994), The Wandering Company (1985).
Shakespeare's plays performed on stage are, in that order: Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, Romeo and Juliet. All include a love story (secondary to the plot in "Hamlet", double affair in "Twelfth Night"). All romances end tragically except in "Twelfth Night".
This film is partly autobiographical as the actors who play the Buckinghams, father, mother and daughter, had those same roles in real life as the Kendal family and had spent years in India performing Shakespeare with a touring company. The daughter, Felicity Kendal, however, was not born in India like her character in the film.