The MAHABHARATA is the world’s greatest epic story. Hindus believe in their DNA that any exposure to it (read, see, hear etc.) will bring them greater success in this life and closer to Nirvana in the next. The brand in South Asia could not be bigger. A few sentences cannot convey the immensity and contemporary importance of the epic, however here are a few pointers:
The Mahabharata is the longest poem in the world with profound meaning for all Hindus (over 1 billion people, with over 1.5 million in the US), and all people of South Asia and the Muslim world (another 1.7 billion people). For more than two thousand years, the Mahabharata has influenced culture, art, literature, social behaviour and politics. The core narrative is surrounded by a huge body of secondary stories – mythological, exotic and philosophical – woven elaborately into an exciting tale of treachery, intrigue and war set in the ancient land of India. PALE KING focuses and dramatizes the first section of the epic into a major 3D fantasy involving the Three Worlds – the Realm of the Gods, the Earth, and the Demon Underworld. The central characters are Krishna and two sets of cousins: the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who find themselves on opposing sides, destined to fight to the death. The Princess Draupadi is married to all five Pandava brothers – and coveted by the Kaurava leaders.
In this world fantastic magical things can happen. A woman can be born from a fish, a mother can drown her babies for good reason; a princess can shut her eyes tight not to see her hermit lover, and her child is born blind. A sari is torn away to reveal a woman’s nakedness, but the sari is magically never ending. PALE KING will be the first global production to be made from the ‘sacred’ epic. The technology now exists to create a major global CGI property, a family entertainment movie that will appeal to both Western and South Asian audiences, with the standards of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Avatar.
