In the mid 1960s Satyajit Ray expressed his desire to make a science fiction film to his friend, the sci-fi literary legend Arthur C. Clark. Already a prolific filmmaker of international repute he was also a self confessed science fiction ...See moreIn the mid 1960s Satyajit Ray expressed his desire to make a science fiction film to his friend, the sci-fi literary legend Arthur C. Clark. Already a prolific filmmaker of international repute he was also a self confessed science fiction addict. His vision for a science fiction film set in a village in West Bengal, differed from the mass produced Hollywood affair. Not only did he dare to conceive a science fiction idea in India (unheard of at the time), he also made sure that it was absolutely different from the usual tropes of a science fiction film made popular by Hollywood. Ray was most comfortable working in Calcutta (Now Kolkata) but the Indian film industry at the time was not equipped to create the special effects required to pull off his vision of a science fiction film. He had to depend on Hollywood if it was to be made at all. This is the story of his journey, the ordeal he had to go through to make this dream come true - a dream that never saw the light of day. Although Ray's achievement as a filmmaker and an artist cannot be belittled by this failure yet if made at that juncture of his career, the genre of science fiction films in India could have attained unimaginable importance.
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