Having written this column for more than three years now I feel that there is a certain relationship that I have developed with the people out there who are reading this column. I feel they are like my confidants, like I can share my thoughts with them and indeed I have done just that. As I get ready to fight a unique fight of my life, I feel this need to share with my friends out there about this fight of mine.

I was really over the moon about making the first stereoscopic 3D film in India and the first since Chotta Chetan all those years back. When I watched Avatar at a multiplex in Los Angeles last year, I looked at the images on the screen in awe and wondered if I would ever be lucky enough to craft such a film in my own country for my own people. As they say, be careful what you ask for ‘cause you might just get it and get it I did. Even before the dust had settled on Avatar, the technology was available to others and I grabbed it! 3D here I come!
What I did not know was behind all that was lurking a quite fiend called stress and he laughed a wicked laugh as he said, “Here I come too!”
Pioneering has its highs and lows and I have grown to understand that in these past few months. I wonder what it must have been for the ancient explorers, the joy of setting sail, the excitement of discovering new lands and the fear of getting lost. I faced all three of them in the past months.
When I started the film there were about 145 theatres that could screen 3D and that was nowhere close to what I wanted. UFO Moviez, a digital exhibition player and the biggest we have in our country, stepped up and offered to partner me on this project but they have had their own share of challenges.
3D cannot play on the normal screens and requires a silver screen but that is not easily available, so they have had to procure that in large quantities, in the meanwhile EFX Prasad, which I maintain is the best special effects house in the country, were encountering problems of their own. They had all my 3D material but now they had to special effects and align both the frames for 3D and not to mention colour correct both the frames to the exact same colour. Sai Prasad of EFX Prasad set sail with me on this voyage and without him we were sure to get lost in the unknown seas. Dar Motion Pictures joined in next with their strong marketing arm and Reliance Entertainment came in with their distribution strength.
I began the walk alone and all these like-minded companies joined in. As I write the piece we all aboard the ship can sight land. It is there, just beyond the fog. Next week we will all see the film in 3D. We are all excited and yet we are all nervous.
Nervous because we have not done the job well? Nah! It looks marvelous but nervous because we have had the cynics jeering us all along the way. “They will never be able to do it!” they said. Nervous because we want the audience to like what we have done and nervous because no one has ever done it before.
My team and I watch with bated breath as the release comes near. I thank you all for reading this. I need for you all to pray for this one. This can change how we see films forever. This can change cinema in India, I know it and when you see it, you will know it too!