'Ship of Theseus' director Anand Gandhi hopes to collaborate with Aamir Khan on 'Maya'

Mumbai, Nov 20 (PTI) Filmmaker Anand Gandhi, best known for “Ship of Theseus” and political board game "Shasn", is busy creating the transmedia universe of "Maya" with game designer Zain Memon and hopes that one day Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan stars in the film iteration of his story.

Gandhi gave a glimpse of “Maya”, which will encompass novels, graphic novels, games, and films, with the launch of the novel "MAYA: Seed Takes Root" recently.

"One long due collaboration is with Aamir though he has not confirmed it. He knows such a thing (‘Maya’) exists and it’s a hope that he will come and participate in this (world). I hope this will be the project that we finally work on together. There has been a desire for collaboration for many years,” Gandhi told PTI in an interview.

"I’ve been telling him about Maya from the time we conceived it, he was one of the first actors to hear about it. I hope I can seduce him at some point to come and act in it," he said.

Gandhi revealed that his former wife and "All We Imagine As Light" star Kani Kusruti is on board as one of the producing partners of the project. She will also act in it, he added.

Set in the fictional planet Neh, the story centers on a biological network of sentient trees known as ‘Maya’, that function as living internet. Citizens “tether” daily to this network, entering shared dreamscapes for work and play, while immortal beings called the Divyas harvest the data to see billions of possible futures. Everyone is tracked, nudged, except one person, whose freedom threatens everything, reads the official synopsis of the story.

Memon said they are leaving no stone unturned in making “Maya” a truly global universe.

“We’re heavily casting for the feature film, the work has begun, the storyboard and screenplay have been done, the film will go on floors soon and it will take three-four years to come. The technology has been developed inhouse," he said, adding they are aiming for a wider release.

Describing the film a "live action, large-scale epic", Gandhi said it is unlike anything seen before.

"It’s bigger and grander than ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Avatar’, and ‘Planet of Apes’ put together. We’ve multiple species, like if ‘The Planet of the Apes’ has anthropomorphic apes, ‘Avatar’ has one alien species, the Na'vi, ‘Star Wars’ have a bunch of alien species but in the background.

"All these species and many more were to cohabit an entire planet and the planet itself is unlike anything that you’ve seen before, like every plant, blade of grass, animal, etc that you see on this planet, is unlike you’ve seen before. So, the concept art that we are putting out is an early storyboard of what you can expect from the film.” Gandhi said he is influenced by the titans of Hollywood -- Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, and the Wachowskis sisters, whose innovative approach to world-building grounded in reality, will continue to be a "gold standard" for years to come.

"What I've learnt from them is the process of creating originality... We need to understand the gravity and geology of this planet, and for this we cannot copy from anyone, we need to start from scratch," he said.

"The process is inherited from them, like world building has been followed by Tolkien (writer John Ronald Reuel), Cameron (James Cameron). This has been a process that has been around, like imagining the world, and making the world cohesive where things don’t feel that they belong to a separate world or system,” he added.

Over the past four years, Gandhi and Memon have rallied a diverse team of more than 200 experts, including biologists, scientists, architects, and artists among others.

“It’s truly ‘Aano Bhadrah Kratavah Yantu Vishwatah’, let great thoughts come to us from all sides. We’ve welcomed everyone in this world building project,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said technology and social media in the world of “Maya” is not cast as the "villain", but rather as an enabler that is hampered by our outdated priorities.

“We’ve incredible technology in front of us, but we’ve a serious problem, a challenge in front of humanity that is not good versus evil, it’s have vs have nots. And that problem has exacerbated to the point where we can grow food in space, but we're not able to feed two million human beings,” he said.

The exciting element in the world of "Maya" is the collaboration with actor Hugo Weaving, known for playing Agent Smith in “The Matrix” films and Elrond in “The Lord of the Rings”.

Memon credited Gandhi for roping in Weaving, a key figure in the “Maya” transmedia, and called it a “bucket list” achievement. The actor has narrated the teaser of the book.

According to the makers, it became the highest-funded debut novel in kickstarter history, raising over Rs. 3.5 crores from thousands of backers worldwide.

"Anand had the privilege of Hugo presenting his film in 2014 in Australia, so we had that relationship. When we were making science-fiction film, we had to get that one person, who was in ‘Lord of Rings’, and ‘Matrix’, and Anand picked up the phone and got him on board,” Memon said. PTI KKP BK BK