For Bollywood, sci-fi remains a world apart

[1]

A poster from Ra.One;

Sci-fi is a whole new world of imagination. In a recent interview, Emraan Hashmi said, “I would love to work in a science fiction.” Ra.One, Joker, Love Story 2050, Koi Mil Gaya and Mr. India are some of the very few Bollywood films that probably can loosely fit the bracket of science-fiction.

Despite experimenting with various genres over the last decade, Bollywood is still wary of this genre, with few attempts, and little promise of success.
“I believe the taste of the audience has not yet evolved for scientific fiction. Also, it requires high calibre thinking in terms of story and conceptualising from the industry. I am not sure if we have that at the moment. But yes, with current crop of directors, the dry spell in the genre might soon be over,” says Komal Nahta, trade analyst.
Constraints of technology kept the filmmakers away from the genre in the fairly long history of Hindi cinema until Shekhar Kapur decided to bell the cat with Mr. India. The movie, though not a full-fledged sci-fi thriller, introduced the genre to the Indian audience.
“Does Bollywood even understand what a sci-fiction is? I’m sorry but for me Bollywood has never even come up with a science fiction. The kind of detailing and complexity required is not every filmmaker’s cup of tea. Films in Bollywood are so star-driven,” adds cinematographer Sejal Shah.
After Kapur, no other Indian filmmaker dared to experiment with the genre for almost two decades, after which Koi Mil Gaya (greatly “inspired” by the hugely popular Hollywood flick, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) came to fore. On the other hand, Hollywood has been experimenting with a variety of sci-fi themes from intergalactic wars to the invasion of Earth by Martians.
“It is ironical that sci-fiction based on teachings of Vedas (in Avatar) or the beliefs of the Bhagavad Gita (in Matrix) made in Hollywood have found universal appeal by incorporating Indian ethnicity,” says Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, director of Lahore. He has been looking forward to making a sci-fiction for sometime now.
Post Koi Mil Gaya, the sequel Krrish hardly had much of sci-fiction element. Love Story 2050 fell flat too. Ra.One grabbed eyeballs owing to SRK’s star power and Joker became the butt of all jokes.
“The kind of technology, texture and budget needed to produce a sci-fiction is tremendous. Mediocre attempts will not survive. At the moment, we don’t possess that,” says Kesto Mondal, senior production designer in Bollywood.