Brahmastra, no superhero business

Ayan Mukerji. Pic/Yogen Shah

Filmmaker Ayan Mukerji's much-awaited big scale fantasy adventure epic Brahmastra, featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, is set to release on September 9, 2022.

In the film, Kapoor plays Shiva, a man with supernatural powers. The Karan Johar-backed production also features Alia Bhatt and megastar Amitabh Bachchan. The first part of the film, billed as a trilogy, will be released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Mukerji said the film is mounted on a humongous budget and the team worked hard to get its VFX, action set-pieces right but would not call it a "superhero" project. "I know the term superhero gets used with the film a lot, because it is sort of in that genre. But in my mind, it is not a superhero film. It is a fantasy adventure epic. It is a modern mythology piece. Shiva is closer to a modern representation of a deva than a western superhero.

The first look of Brahmastra

He is a normal guy who is born with a certain energy within him," explained the director. Mukerji has been nurturing the idea of Brahmastra since 2011, after his 2009 debut with Wake Up Sid, when he visited the Himalayas. He later made the blockbuster Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani in 2013 but deep dived into fleshing out Brahmastra soon after. Mukerji said what appealed to him the most was the possibility of mounting an epic film with roots in Indian mythology.

"The feeling of spirituality that we have in India, when we go to the Himalaya or visit some ancient sites... Indians are spiritual, we believe in a higher power. I felt a story like this had not been made in India. Then, the story came to me as something set in the modern world. That juxtaposition of modern and ancient was extremely appealing. I felt I could continue to write as a modern filmmaker, but also drawing from my roots and where we all come from. I felt that it was new and powerful." The film features Bhatt as Isha and Bachchan as Guruji.

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