The Alien: Satyajit Ray’s unrealised sci-fi dream and the Hollywood film that came eerily close

He eventually struck a deal with Columbia Pictures. Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers were reportedly attached to star in the film. The project promised to be a landmark collaboration—bridging Kolkata and Hollywood. But it never happened.

Ray’s Hollywood contact, Michael Wilson, copyrighted the script in his own name and took the fees, leaving Ray sidelined. Disheartened, Ray returned to Kolkata. Despite Columbia’s attempts to revive the film in the 70s and 80s, The Alien remained shelved.

Until 1982.

That year, Ray watched E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the now-iconic film by Steven Spielberg. He couldn’t ignore the striking similarities. The lonely child, the benign alien stranded on Earth, the emotional bond—it all echoed The Alien.

Arthur C Clarke called Ray and urged him to sue, telling him not to take it “lying down.” In a 1983 India Today interview, Ray confirmed receiving Clarke’s call. He later told French filmmaker Pierre-André Boutang that “many ideas in The Alien are in E.T.” and noted that mimeographed copies of his script had circulated widely at Columbia. “Lots of people have read the screenplay,” he said.

Spielberg dismissed the plagiarism claims, and Ray never pursued legal action. Yet the parallels have fuelled speculation and debate ever since.

While The Alien never made it to the big screen, the story found a modest afterlife. In 2003, Ray’s son, Sandip Ray, adapted Bankubabur Bandhu into a Bengali television movie, finally bringing the original narrative to audiences, if not in the way his father had once envisioned.

An old photo of Satyajit Ray. (Photo: Express Archive)

Today, 33 years after his death on April 23, 1992, Ray’s legacy remains firmly intact through his films like the Apu Trilogy, Charulata, and Devi, and even through an unfinished sci-fi script that, some argue, travelled further than anyone could have imagined.

Rhea Kapoor is an intern with The Indian Express.