New Delhi Mar. 25 (ANI): Three young filmmakers from the US are attempting to make classic Indian epic Ramayana, which has been narrated several times through TV series, movies, cartoons, animation films and more.
This will be the first ever live-action adaptation of the epic tales and the makers of it plan to give it an English adaptation for the global audiences.
When asked that why did they choose Ramayana when they could have got a lot of variety in the mythological hub India, Co-Director Sean Graham said, "It's a hero's journey not much different from other Greek and Roman epics and we feel that global audiences will find it accessible. Actually, the Ramayan is already well known in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and several other countries. It's a natural choice. I also have a personal connection to it, since I first heard about it in my introduction to religious studies course, freshman year of college at Rice University in Houston, Texas."
Adding more to this, co-director Vineet Sinha said, "Also, we get to bring Hanuman to life in a way never seen before. We see Planet of the Apes and King Kong and wonder how Hanuman will look in a photorealistic way on screen. It gets us excited. Funny how Sean and I both got into the Ramayan due to college - it was my application essay to film school when I applied to University of Southern California."
Responding to a poser on where did the idea of a live action adaptation of Ramayana come from, Abhinav, the producer of Live Action, said that he wanted to tell epic tales in a grand manner, just the way his grandparents narrated it to him.
These tales have been in his heart for a while but he has never seen Indian epics transformed on screen in India the way it should have been done. He felt disappointed that in spite of having such charismatic characters and inspiring narratives there are no movies on the epics one can feel proud of, adding once he heard Vineet and Sean's pitch he jumped on the opportunity.
More From This Section
Claiming that this adaption would be grandly welcomed by the Indian audience, he added, "Indian audiences will love it, especially in today's world of streaming content where we can't get enough of period series like 'Game of Thrones', 'Rome', 'Vikings' etc."
"If we present Indian audiences the Ramayan at that level of production and story quality they will be able to relate more, since it's not only a a bed time tale that's pretty much in our DNA but we follow Ramayan values in our day to day lives," Abhinav added.
The team is looking for crowd funding on wishberry: https://www.wishberry.in/campaign/ramayana-enter-forest/.