James Cameron hopes to make a film on Indian epics

If there is anything that would convince world famous Hollywood director James Cameron to make a film in India, it would be its popular ancient epics, the “Ramayan” and the “Mahabharat”.
“Maybe right after the third 'Avatar',” joked the self-confessed 'science groupie,' social activist and one of Hollywood's most successful filmmakers who finds India “fascinating, now that I've been here a couple of times.”
“But if there is an Indian director who'd like to make a film -- it could be about the 'Ramayan' or the 'Mahabharat' -- we can offer the technology we've already developed (the 3D system and the virtual camera),” he added.
For now though, as far as filmmaking is concerned, Cameron is not looking beyond the next two films in the “Avatar” series; he is in the midst of scripting the films.
Talking about “Avatar”, which grossed more than $ 2.7 billion worldwide in ticket sales only, he says, “The films made money in a way that gave me hope. Non-profit organisations and NGOs approached me to use 'Avatar' to further their message.”
Earlier in the year, Cameron was in the Amazon, protesting against the massive Belo Monte dam that the Brazilian government plans to build.
According to the New York Times, “it would be the third largest in the world, and environmentalists say it would flood hundreds of square miles of the Amazon and dry up a 60-mile stretch of the Xingu River, devastating the indigenous communities that live along it.”
Cameron became a passionate social activist post-Avatar, particularly after he saw the response the film generated among NGOs. “However,” he says, “I pick my causes carefully.” His strategy, he says, is “to go there, talk to all sides and once I am concerned, then I can do something about it.”
“We can do well,” he said, “Do good for the planet and the future generation.”
The unexpected response to “Avatar” from environmental groups has got Cameron “very interested in renewable energy. I am going to focus my extra-curricular energy outside 'Avatar' to that cause. But we are not going to solve the environmental crisis if we don't first solve the energy crisis.”
Asked to define success, he says, “Success is when people are listening. If the seeds are landing on fertile soil, that's it.”
Cameron was in Lavasa, a hill township near Pune, as one of the featured speakers at INK, the innovation and knowledge conference inspired by the TED series.
Before coming to India -- his first visit was in March this year -- says Cameron, he had a love affair with the imagery of India that he had in his head. But, once he came here, “I realised they were real people.” Now, he's fascinated with what he describes is the “energy of the nation and the rapid changing modern India.”
Compiled by Correspondent