R Madhavan Says Films on Aryabhatta, Sundar Pichai Should Be Made: They Have Bigger Fans Than Actors

Actor R Madhavan on Thursday said that Indian cinema has largely overlooked stories from science and technology field and its many pioneers like legendary mathematician Aryabhatta and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Madhavan, whose directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Market on Thursday, was speaking at a panel discussion at the India Forum in Cannes, where he was joined by Union minister Anurag Thakur, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, lyricist and CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi and American journalist Scott Roxborough.

“From Aryabhatta to Sundar Pichai, we have such extraordinary stories as far as science and technology is concerned. We are not making movies about these people. These people are the aspirations for the youngsters around the world. They have bigger fans than stars and actors put together,” Madhavan was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“I’ve met these guys from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh who started a new Metaverse and are into web 3.0… We’re not making movies about such success stories… There’s one aspect of India that is so aspirational today, that we as filmmakers or people talking about India, are completely ignoring and that is the excellence in science and technology,” Madhavan added.

Citing the example of Hollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who is known for his acclaimed sci-fi movies “Inception,” “Interstellar,” and “Tenet,” the 51-year-old actor-director said, “When Christopher Nolan makes a film called ‘Inception’ or ‘Interstellar’, the reviewers go there afraid that they hope they get what he’s trying to say because they don’t want to give the review and sound like an idiot. Because they didn’t get it as they know that it’s a scientist who’s making a movie. That’s how qualified he is.”

“I still haven’t understood ‘Inception’ till now but I have all the respect for the guy because he has that much knowledge about science. And he’s absolutely unconcerned about the fact that the audience may or may not get it,” he added.

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