Director Ayan Mukerji’s passion project Brahmastra is nearing its release after several years in the making. First announced in 2014, the movie stars Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan along with Nagarjuna Akkineni and Mouni Roy. Both Mukerji and Kapoor recently spoke to Variety about the challenges presented in bringing the vision to life.
Brahmastra has an interesting concept that combines a contemporary setting with Indian spirituality. It revolves around ‘astras’ [weapons] of light and shakti [energy]. Taking its cue from Indian mythology the movie is set in the modern world where Brahmansh, a secret society has guarded ‘astras’ created in ancient India for generations. The protagonist Shiva [Kapoor] figures he has some connection to the most powerful of these weapons, the Brahmastra, which is now waking up and threatens to destroy the universe.
The Indian film industry is highly reliant on its leading stars for the film’s success. The right star can always bring a heavy footfall to the theaters. However, the same can’t be said when it comes to the fantasy adventure genre or developing a franchise. Various filmmakers and stars have made attempts in the past to no avail. Ra.One led by Shah Rukh Khan, Drona led by Abhishekh Bachchan, and the Krrish franchise led by Hrithik Roshan all failed to make a mark. The audience rather preferred their Marvel superheroes.
Mukerji and Kapoor want to change that. “Any film, any good compelling story, made in your culture, in an authentic way, in a true form, will connect to a large audience. It [Brahmastra] is deep rooted in Indian culture, and we had the opportunity to create our own Marvel, which Ayan is trying to do with his Astraverse,” Kapoor told Variety.
The director has already planned out story points for Brahmastra 2 and 3, which are in their scripting phase. Mukerji explained:
“Brahmastra is not an end in itself, but it’s a means to a larger end. We have part two and part three ahead of us, we have the potential to really take the storytelling in many diverse directions even beyond ‘Brahmastra,’ and there is no way to do it at the scale at which I hope to do it, unless our audience base does not increase. So that’s definitely part of the ambition.”
The movie’s Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam versions will be represented by Bahubali franchise fame SS Rajamouli. The project is backed by Disney’s Star Studios, Dharma Productions, Prime Focus, and Starlight Pictures. Kapoor, who also serves as a producer on the movie expects the movie to reach a wider audience, “there is a little luck to play to it – like what kind of release you get, what kind of exposure you get. And in our case, we have Disney. And there’s nothing better than that. Mukerji added,
And I hope that, as a key step with Disney coming on board, just our overseas distribution before it even crosses over to the western audience, I hope it’s able to reach the subcontinent audience in the western world in a much wider fashion, so that we can actually see that return on box office numbers.”
Brahmastra is set to hit theaters on September 9. Meanwhile, watch the teaser below:
