Bodhidharma: Master of Shaolin - Ram Madhvani web series

[GeneChing]

AUDIENCES HAVE FREEDOM TO SEE WHAT THEY WANT: RAM MADHVANI
IANS | Jan 3, 2017, 03.39 PM IST

After garnering critical acclaim for his film Neerja, Ram Madhvani is working on a web series titled Bodhidharma: Master of Shaolin. The director feels going digital is the future, and says that audience is no longer stifled by the practice of setting time aside to watch particular content.

Madhvani along with lyricist, screenwriter and ad guru Prasoon Joshi, is working on the action series, based on the story of a warrior prince of the sixth century who became the founder of the Shaolin Temple in China and the founder of martial arts.

The show -- which is one of the Indian original shows for Amazon Prime Video -- is expected to be a visual spectacle with martial arts, music backed by great storytelling.

Madhvani says he wanted to make a film on the same story initially.

"Prasoon Joshi and I have been working on a feature film called 'Bodhi Dharma Master of Shaolin'. And as Prasoon kept writing, we realised that it was becoming longer than what a feature film length normally is," Madhvani told IANS over an email from Mumbai.

Talking about his decision to go digital, he said, "Digital is the future and content viewing on the digital platform is where the world and India is going and we are very excited to be at the forefront of this."

Madhvani said, "The audience is no longer hand cuffed by appointment viewing and have the freedom to see what they want, when they want, at a very reasonable cost".

He explained that this "not only expands the audience base but is very liberating for both the audience and the creators".

Many people see Hollywood as a threat to Bollywood. But for Madhvani it doesn't hold true.

"India is a pluralistic society and our past has told us that we somehow can invite, assimilate and yet be our own. We as Indians see no contradictions in that idea of being rooted in our culture, yet embracing the best of any other. That's true whether it's for food or films. We know that we need to speak to our audience in our ways within our culture," he said.

For now, Madhvani is busy with the ten-episode web series.

Neerja-helmer Ram Madhvani wanted to make a film on warrior prince Bodhidharma
Ram Madhavani's web series, Bodhidharma: Master of Shaolin, will trace the story of a warrior prince in sixth century who became the founder of martial arts and Shaolin temple in China.
By: PTI | Mumbai | Publishedecember 31, 2016 5:02 pm


Ram Madhvani’s next project is a web series.

Director Ram Madhvani whose next venture is a web series called ‘Bodhidharma: Master of Shaolin’ says he initially thought of making the story of this warrior into a film. After the success of Neerja, Ram will helm a web series called ‘Bodhidharma: Master of Shaolin’. The historical series will trace the story of a warrior prince in sixth century who became the founder of martial arts and Shaolin temple in China.
Ram, who is collaborating with lyricist-writer Prasoon Joshi for this project reveals they first wanted to make this initially into a feature film. “Then some months ago we came across Aparna from Amazon Prime (where the series will be streamed)and she asked us to consider to make it into a series and Prasoon and I jumped at it. It began as a feature film but it will be a series now,” Ram said.
Considering Ram is going back in time for this historical fiction series, he doesn’t fear any backlash as he has done extensive research on the subject. “We are making a web series on ‘Bodhi Dharma…’ and I don’t fear any backlash. I would fear backlash if I have not researched on the subject. We have had enough people to help us in the research,” Ram said.
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“We are not worried about putting together the accuracy of the period, characters and subject. It is historical fiction in terms of characters and not the period,” he said. The ‘Neerja’ helmer believes in doing extensive research for this historical fiction series.
“I am on this project for years. Even in case of ‘Neerja’ we were extremely extensive in research. I like to research on a subject and then make it. Researching is easy making it is difficult,” Ram said.
“Now for Bodhidharma… we are completely honest to that era at the same time there is not much known about the man,” he said.
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According to Prasoon, the most challenging part was apart from the central character most of the characters had to be imagined out of thin air. They are fictional but had to connect to the historical truth. One also decided to give it a philosophical nuanced approach whilst keeping the entertainment quotient alive,” he added.
Ram too thinks it was not easy to work on this series. “Since a lot had to be imagined I transported myself into that era and started breathing the mythical hydrogen and got immersed in creating the narrative,” Prasoon adds. The makers are yet to finalise the cast for the series but intend to start pre-production.
Both Ram and Prasoon are excited and nervous about how the audience will react to it. “I am not scared about the success or failure of the series but I am concerned about portraying the value system correctly and make everyone proud of the work,” Ram said. The 10-episode historical action series titled Bodhidharma: Master of Shaolin will come on Amazon Prime.
“Its a ten episode series consisting of 45 minutes to one hour. We are still discussing about when to start the web series. We have just made the announcement,” Ram said.

I think Neerja is available on Netflix. Been jonzing for a dose of Bollywood, but that one didn't look like it was going to have any dance numbers. Might check it out anyway now.

[David Jamieson]

I think Neerja is available on Netflix. Been jonzing for a dose of Bollywood, but that one didn't look like it was going to have any dance numbers. Might check it out anyway now.

Have you seen Wrath of Vajra yet? I thought that was a pretty dang cool film. (It's a Chinese production, but still)

[GeneChing]

Have you seen Wrath of Vajra yet? I thought that was a pretty dang cool film. (It's a Chinese production, but still)

My WoV review.

[GeneChing]

I checked out Neerja on Netflix. It's received some critical acclaim and one of its stars, Shabana Azmi, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Asian Film Awards.

Neerja is the 'based on actual events' story of Neerja Bhanot, a the head purser on a Pan Am flight that was hijacked by Abu Nidal terrorists in Karachi back in 1986. She was awarded India's highest honor, the Ashoka Chakra, the youngest person ever to receive this. I remember nothing about this event. The story seemed a bit overdone - a professional model and airline purser who had recently left an abusive marriage steps up to the terrorists, making all the right moves to save hundreds of lives like hiding the Americans and even shielding American children with her body. I made the mistake of wiki-ing this during a slow point, which spoiled the ending. I might have liked this a lot more without that spoiler, but then again, I imagine that Indian audiences were already familiar with her story as she's a national hero, so maybe that's just me being annoyed with myself for peeking. As it turned out, wiki validated every plot point. Even the actress portraying Neerja bore a striking resemblance to her. Madhvani was very loyal to the actual event, surprisingly so for any 'based on actual events' film. It gives me hope for this Bodhidharma web series. I was impressed how Madhvani tied some story elements together, particularly Neerja's failed marriage and the hostage situation, but because it was Bollywood, it was twice as long as it needed to be (Bollywood films average 3+ hours and include an intermission).

I was struck on how the terrorists were portrayed just like Hollywood portrays them - there were four: a leader, a crazy one, a reticent one, and the fourth wasn't really characterized. The only difference was that they captured the language differences, so there were communication issues between Arabic and Hindi. Everyone speaks American in Hollywood films, even space aliens. Of course, Hitchhiker's Guide solved that with the Babelfish, but that's in space, not in Karachi.