Beyond Abbey Road

New York-based TV producer Vivek J Tiwary is not your average Beatles fan,who lives in your imagination. He is rather imaginative himself.

A new feature film by an Indian-American producer captures the enigma of Brian Epstein,the controversial manager of The Beatles

New York-based TV producer Vivek J Tiwary is not your average Beatles fan,who lives in your imagination. He is rather imaginative himself. His interest in the band stretches beyond the virtuoso of the four mop-top styled boys from Liverpool singing their simple,yet relentlessly provocative numbers. He doesnt settle with the band; instead explores Brian Epstein,the bands manager for six years and his life around The Beatles. He is busy putting finishing touches to his first feature film The Fifth Beatle on Epsteins life. The excitement is palpable as he has just secured ironclad rights to the original music of The Beatles,for the film. We have secured rights for using 12 tracks from bands music. These include tracks like All You Need Is Love,Youve Got to Hide Your Love Away,A Day in the Life and Yesterday, says 38-year-old Indian-origin filmmaker from Patterson,New York,who is the script writer and the chief producer of the film. These rights were secured by him after a two and half year struggle.

The film is significant since it is the only film about The Beatles,after the 2009 film,Nowhere Boy,to feature the original music,instead of the cover versions. Tiwary has focussed on the last six years of Epsteins life before his death in 1967 and has narrated those through a mix of history,dream sequences and allegory. Epstein,who was one of the most successful managers for the Beatles was a closet homosexual and died of a sedative overdose. What struck me about Epstein was the human side of his story and not just his music handling skills. He was a gay Jewish man from Liverpool,which was not a cultural mecca at that time. So for him to say that he would change the world through music,was an outrageous attempt at being adventurous, explains Tiwary,who began flirting with the idea of the film five years ago. A successful producer of recent Broadway musicals like The Addams Family and American Idiot,which premiered last year,Tiwary decided it was time to tell and produce his own story.

As a filmmaker,Tiwary looked to his past for inspiration. As a student of the Wharton Business School in the mid 90s,he wanted to branch out into the entertainment industry. I wanted to manage a band,but in order to do that I had to study some great artist managers. That led me to Epstein , says Tiwary,who initially wanted Epsteins business blueprint.

The vague similarities with his own personality inspired him further. I was a first generation Indian growing up in New York,wanting to make a name for myself in the industry, says Tiwary,who struggled to find the resource material needed. The film he says,is more of a an underdogs story,like the least likely guy succeeding in his chosen field.

An important part of research was to secure permissions. So he visited Epsteins descendents at their Estate in Liverpool and also reached out to the former Beatles. Securing music was the most crucial part of the process. Now,Tiwary has already sourced $ 25 million for the project and is in talks with few A-list directors for the project. The casting must be young and will depend on the vision of the director, explains Tiwary,who hopes to commence shooting next year. He is simultaneously working on a fiction TV serial,Fractured ,which is something like a Lost meets the Da Vinci Code, he concludes.

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