Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur who has been long planning to create an Indian adaptation of Harry Potter, on World Harry Potter Day today, says that plan is very much alive. He adds that AI has added fuel to the plan, Kapur tells us, “In the explosive world of AI it’s easier to create stories into visual ideas and .magic . I am an obsessive story teller for to me everything I look at everything I observe, all perception is a Story we tell ourselves.” Speaking about the influence the Harry Potter series has had on him he adds, “The influence that Harry Potter had on me was the stunning influence it had on the whole world. I thought, why did we in India not think of it ? So I wrote my own very Indian version derived from the magical world I lived in as a kid.” The filmmmaker says we grew up believing in everything that was magic . “Our minds are full of magical ideas and magical potential as I kid I saw the real world as magical illusions beyond what people call reality . That was my real world and probably still is,” he ends with a smile.
Earlier this year, the filmmaker was in the news after he said, says that the current political system can’t cater to the needs of India’s huge population. “The time our constitution was made, there were 350 million Indians and no one had an idea that after 60 years, most of them will move to urban areas and settle there,” he says. “Add to that the fact that it was created for people who didn’t have huge aspirations. Right now, 350 million people are below poverty line, the aspirations and dreams of our country’s people have become bigger.” The system therefore needs to be changed and the biggest problem there is that the system will fight back with inertia,” adds Shekhar, who was in the capital last week to promote his TV series, Pradhanmantri on ABP News. He tries to support his statement with the recent Uttarakhand flood example. “What’s the latest that you have heard about the Uttarakhand floods?”