India's first bonafide sci-fi film, being directed by Cryptic's co-directors
10 Feb 2015
Bart Ruspoli and Freddie Hutton-Mills, the duo who directed the hit 2014 horror film Cryptic began shooting Genesis, India's first sci-fi film, in the UK from this week.
The film being produced by Sheetal and Bhavna Talwar, is being made on the same scale as sci-fi classics like the Star Wars series Gravity and Inception . Though the Talwars are not willing to divulge the exact budget, it is reported to be close to 80 million dollars.
Laughs Sheetal Talwar, "Why are we talking dollars when the film is being produced by us and being shot in the UK? But yes, jokes aside Genesis is a very expensive and ambitious film. We were lucky to get Bart and Freddie on board." Bart and Freddie operate the SFX Company Next Level Films which will supervise all the technical aspects of Genesis. Bart and Freddie are also on board as co-producers of the film.
Says Sheetal proudly, "We have John Hamm playing the lead in Genesis . We are very proud to be the first Indian company to produce India's first sci-fi film. Of course, there have been futuristic Bollywood films like Harry Baweja's Love Story 2050 and Anubhav Sinha's Ra.One . But with due respects to these attempts, we're looking at a truly international sci-fi film in Genesis ." Sheetal Talwar was encouraged to try out something as audacious as a globally acceptable sci-fi film after the success of his previous international project, The Eichman Show which captured the horrors of the Nazi holocaust through the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Martin Freeman, the star of the Hobbitt trilogy, played the lead in the film which also starred Anthony La Paglia and Rebecca Front.
The Eichman Show has now been acquired by the prestigious Weinstein Company owned by American movie maverick Harvey Weinstein, the man behind the acquisition of such films as The King's Speech and Paddington . Says Sheetal Talwar, "It really can't get any bigger than this for us. We are proud to take Indian cinema to the West."
