‘JL 50’ director: Wanted to represent strong connection India always had with science

Mumbai, Sep 19  The sci-fi series JL 50 has been received well by critics and OTT viewers, but director Shailender Vyas feels the show was designed for the big-screen.

“It was a heartbreaking decision for me and the team to take as we have an emotional connection to the show,” Vyas said about dropping the show on OTT, reasoning that they took the decision owing to the ongoing pandemic that had shut down cinema halls: “For me and the team, it was important to release and reach our audience.”

The series featuring Abhay Deol, Pankaj Kapur and Piyush Mishra revolves around a plane that had vanished decades ago after take-off, and suddenly crash-lands in a remote village of presentday West Bengal.

“When I started writing JL 50, my focus was to represent to my audience the strong connection India always had with science. Moreover, every time I would discuss time travel, thereaction mostly was ‘Yeh sab India mein nahin chalta (these ideas don’t work in India)’. Which dragged me to study Indian history to understand the importance of science in our heritage, lifestyle and tradition then and now. I was elated to learn how rich India is when it comes to scientific conclusions,” said Vyas.

He added: “Hence, it was not difficult for me to hold on to the Indianness in the story.”

He says it was his good fortune to work with his favourite actors. “I got a chance to direct the finest actors of the industry and at the same time the process was easy and enlightening. In fact, they were not just actors but my support system who stood by me throughout the journey like a family,” the filmmaker signed off.