Bollywood's new obsession for the epics

Three years ago, SS Rajamouli wanted to make Mahabharata and had spoken to Aamir Khan as well about it. Rajamouli went on to make the Baahubali series, but now even as his film RRR is slated to release next, the buzz on his film of epic promotions has not died down specially after the TV serials Mahabharata and Ramayana is being telecast by the national broadcaster Doordarshan.

And perhaps this has also gotten filmmakers to renew their interests in films that are based on the epics.

“It is the time for such films. As writers, we derive a lot of stories from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They are stories written years ago – you have all kinds of characters in these epics. There are so many of them these days – There is Aamir Khan who is himself doing a Mahabharata – Rajamouli had wanted to make one for sure – Deepika Padukone is looking at making a Mahabharata through the eyes of Draupadi and then Chitra Banerjee Divakurni wrote a book called The Palace Of Illusions from the viewpoint of Draupadi which has been acquired by filmmaker Babloo Pachisia to make as a film which I believe Anand Neelakantan is developing,” says veteran writer and historian Imtiaz Baghdadi.

As for the Ramayana – while Nitesh Tiwari himself is penning one for Allu Aravind and Madhu Mantena and the last named has also partnered with Deepika Padukone for the Draupadi perspective. In the meanwhile, Hum Tum director Kunal Kohli was also planning his version of the epic a while ago. “All these projects have now received a shot in the arm as the younger generation will be more aware of these stories. Forget the special effects or what we called as trick photography used in those days – there is a story being told in those epics – which is missing in many films today,” adds Baghdadi.