Love story 2050 is an epic kind of film: Harry BawejaSubhash K. Jha: Producer-director Harry Baweja promises his forthcoming “Love Story 2050″, about futuristic Mumbai, will be more spectacular than “Krrish” as he has hired technicians involved with films like “Lord Of The Rings”.
“Thirty years ago, Hollywood got us Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone doing ‘Terminator’ and ‘Rocky’. It was all about letting the machismo hang out. Today, the concept of the actioner and the action hero has changed.
“Overt beefy jungle-man tactics are out. Today’s audience is the subtle urban multiplex audience,” Baweja told IANS.
After Baweja, Shekhar Kapur will showcase a vision of tomorrow’s Mumbai in his film “Paani”.
“I’m glad I was the one to bell the cat. Everyone seems to have woken up to the powers of special effects. The audience now wants to see more FX films. I feel after my film’s release there’ll be dozens of such films on the floor. This is the future of Indian cinema.”
Though “Love Story 2050″, which is son Harman’s launch pad, moves through two different time zones and two eras, Baweja says he has learnt a lesson from the “Jodhaa Akbar” experience. He is trying to keep his film short.
“Mine is an epic kind of film. The story needs to move smoothly in time. The time factor is a problem. We tried to get it down to two hours and 30 minutes, but we’ll have to keep it at two hours and 50 minutes.”
“We divided the FX in ‘Love Story 2050′ over five international studios. Technicians involved with films like ‘Lord Of The Rings’ are part of our film.”
There’s apparently been infinite delay in the release of the futuristic spectacle and Baweja says it is because of the special effect, which takes a lot of time.
“We started shooting on Sep 3, 2006, and finished in March 2007. Any special effects film is bound to take that long… not to compare myself with anyone else. But my film has 10 times more FX than ‘Krrish’.”
“We’ve something called animatronics in our film. That took inordinately long. It required a six-month waiting period. One year before that we applied for copyrights for designs.”
Speaking of his son, Harry says: “Harman is being targeted at the youth. He’s young, energetic and part of the Gen X, so he’s being given a launch where the audience gets to feel the excitement of a spectacle. This time my responsibilities are tremendous.”
Baweja tries to play down his excitement about his son’s debut.
“You mean now I don’t have to sign outside stars and I just have to run to my son? I was very happy making films with Ajay Devgan. But it’s definitely gratifying to have a leading man at home whose career I can mould. Just like Rakesh and Hrithik Roshan.
“Like Hrithik, Harman understands cinema and the camera. That really helps. He’s a fast learner and growing by the day. He has been learning very fast. Even if I weren’t his father, I’d rate him very highly.”
He says that it’s too early to say how many prints will be released.
“But after the encouraging response to the theatrical trailer, we feel the print order will be far more than we had anticipated. All I can tell you is nothing like this has been attempted before.”
