Ayan Mukerji says he wants to be India’s Steven Spielberg and James Cameron: ‘I wanted to do that for our audience’

Brahmastra director Ayan Mukerji said that he wanted to give a homegrown spectacle to the audience with his fantasy film, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: June 12, 2022 09:23 AM IST

3 min read

Ayan Mukerji (left) with Brahmastra actors Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor. (Photo: Varinder Chawla)

Brahmastra director Ayan Mukerji is very excited for his upcoming film, which he says he has been working on for almost a decade. The director said that making a fictional story that had its roots in Indian lore was a dream for him, as he wanted to give Indian audiences a slice of what James Cameron and Steven Spielberg gave to Hollywood.

In a chat with journalist Puja Talwar, Ayan said that he “wanted to do that for our audience.” He added, “I wanted to be that young filmmaker who is trying to do something that Steven Spielberg did in Hollywood, or James Cameron did, perhaps.” The Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani director added that he wanted to create the same kind of impact with an Indian story and not take inspiration from something from the West. “I did not want to do it with stories that were western. I wanted to draw from something that was truly Indian. That love for Indian history, Indian culture, our gods and goddesses was in me since I was a kid, it was there in my subconscious.” He added that the origin of the story had been in him his entire life, and that Brahmastra isn’t exactly a superhero story.

Talking about the spectacle that Hollywood puts on, Ayan said that he wanted to reach that level of filmmaking. “I really like the genre of fantasy. I was a fan of the stuff that Hollywood was doing with their own fantasy storytelling and creating spectacles of a level which you just had to go to the cinema to watch,” he said. At a time when Hindi films are still trying to bring back the audience to the cinemas, Brahmastra is releasing in various languages across the country in September. The film’s trailer is set to be released on June 15.

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Starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy, Nagarjuna Akkineni among others, Brahmastra is being touted as a trilogy, with the first part titled Bramastra – Part One: Shiva. The film will be released on September 9.

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