Feb 24, 2026 8:40pm IST
‘The Hollowness of It Becomes Evident Very Quickly’: ‘Shiv Sati’ Creator Vivek Anchalia On Why Mythology Films Fail as Cash Grabs (EXCLUSIVE)
The love story of Lord Shiva and Sati has fascinated innumerable writers, artists and viewers alike. We will soon get to see an animated film version of it in a big project launched by the music label, Saregama. This movie will be directed by Vivek Anchalia, a veteran screenwriter. In an interview with Variety India, Vivek spoke about how making a mythological project means considering multiple factors, and how AI is indeed a boon for this genre.
What are the challenges of making an animated film on Shiva and Sati's love story. Did the success of films like “Mahavatar Narasimha” inspire this?
Well, I would say the challenges were many. The biggest one is to keep the essence and the emotion alive in this form. It is also important to stay culturally accurate and relevant. In mythology, the moment you lose bhaav (emotion), you lose meaning and the trust of the audience. So, it's a very thin line. There's another huge challenge: building a world where most of your references are words you are reading most of the time. And even the visual interpretations that exist are very different from each other. So, you are building things from the spoken or written word.
On the "Mahavatar Narasimha" question, I'm actually fascinated with that question. I wouldn't say we were inspired in the sense that the story has been with me for almost 15 years now when I was working in television. If I ever want to do a love story, the one of Shiv and Sati would fit right in there. So, I wouldn't say that we were inspired by ‘Mahavatar Narasimha’, but yes, the success of a film like that also gives you hope and confidence that this genre is something that the audience is ready to watch. You go in and tell your story.
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According to you, what is so timeless about Shiva and Sati’s love story that makers keep on revisiting it?
I feel this love story has this kind of appeal because it's probably the story of the origin of love or the invention of love itself. It has that timeless quality as these two make the foundation of the universe. Shiv and Sati’s love story has a theme and scale that is very compelling. It is also loaded with emotions as you have love, sacrifice, ego, devotion, balance, imbalance and destruction - everything at a scale, which is so unimaginable. We treat Shiv and Sati as the mother and father of the universe. It is also about a feeling of harmony.
What can we expect from the film’s music?
I think in a film like ‘Shiv Sati,’ music can't just be in the background. It has to feel like bhakti-meets-cinema. You need to pack in scale and emotions at the same time. What I want from the music is that tenderness, divinity, that silence of Kailash, that unstoppable energy when the universe shifts. And, you know, when the climax is massive and all those feelings, I want to be captured by the music. It should feel rooted. It should feel like us. It should feel Indian. And yet it should have the scale of a big screen. But Saregama's legacy, I mean, the intent is to make the soundtrack that's something people don't just, you know, hear in theaters, but also carry it home and hopefully hum for years to come.
Do you feel creative content around mythology has kind of become a quick cash-grab initiative, given how people are drawn to such subjects?
I would say some of it is, yes, because anything that becomes popular can attract shortcuts. I don't look at mythology as a cash grab. I think, honestly, you can do something popular at a certain point in time and fail spectacularly if it doesn't come from the right place. I actually think people reconnecting with our culture and the ancient stories is a beautiful thing. It is also a great responsibility for storytellers because when the audience comes to watch a thing like this, they are putting a lot of faith in you. It then becomes our job to be extremely sincere, spiritually engaging, respectful and if it is treated just as a business and as a cash grab, it will fall flat very quickly. The hollowness of it becomes evident too fast, but if it is done from a place of wanting to tell a story because it is beautiful, engaging, because it is something that you genuinely feel should be told, then it is something magical. What your approach is and your starting point, make all the difference and that would, in the long run, decide the success or the failure of it.
What research went into this project to make it different as the basic story of Shiva, Sati and the Tandav has been done before?
Well, I started reading at the source. I started reading the Shiv Puran and then we went through different interpretations of it. Along the way, we consulted scholars and also brought in traditional filmmaking experts to build on that knowledge in terms of visuals and narrative. I think it will be different in multiple ways because the execution process is very different than anything done before. Also, Shiv and Sati's story, because it is mostly written words and the reference that you find in paintings and in any kind of art, is such a personal interpretation of the artist. I feel that when we make it, we will make it with our interpretation, our imagination and hence it will be very, very different from what we've seen. We are also trying to do it in a visual style that has not been done before, so that itself becomes one of the differentiators.
Do you feel AI is a boon to filmmaking in India, as we have so many mythological stories that can be told on screen?
I think AI is a boon if it is used to enhance human endeavor rather than replace it. For us, the film is a blend. We have actors, we have technicians, we have CG, we have AI, we have traditional music, singers, everything coming together. So, AI is just one part of this larger filmmaking ecosystem. Yes, if this new technology can help us as the oldest civilization in the world to tell the greatest stories that we've not been able to tell because of limitations that we've had till now, it is good. And if we can build this as a layer within our ecosystem of traditional filmmaking to tell stories that are just so beautiful, with such great depth and so engaging a scale that we have not been able to do before so that the world can see what our culture holds. I think that is a great thing that could have happened to us as filmmakers and storytellers.
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