Aim to create a never-before-seen world with ‘Brahmastra’, says Ayan Mukherji

Billed as a trilogy, the big-budget fantasy adventure epic stars Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Amitabh Bachchan.

The 38-year-old director, who has been working on “Brahmastra” for 10 years, revealed that the idea for the movie started taking shape while he was making “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” (2013), also starring Kapoor.

“In the last 10 years me and my entire team have worked immensely hard to make this film. We really wanted to create something mind blowing, unique, never-before-seen. “We have worked so hard to make a film so that eventually audiences like our film, which is why we wanted to launch the first thing of ‘Brahmastra’ with the audience,” Mukerji, who made his debut in 2009 with the Kapoor-starrer ''Wake Up Sid'', said at the motion poster launch event of the film here.

“Brahmastra” features Kapoor as Shiva, a man born with special powers; Bhatt as Isha, his love interest, and Bachchan as his mentor.

The film was initially titled 'Dragon' and the filmmaker said the team changed the name to “Brahmastra” as it was a more appropriate choice.

“I don’t know how this (news) got out, maybe I had mentioned it once on social media. Actually when ‘Dragon’ was the title of the film that time we had not thought about it. “Shiva in the film has the power of fire so I wrote the name ‘Dragon’ on the script. But the film was always rooted and inspired by Indian culture and history. So, when the time came to give the title, ‘Brahmastra’ was always the right title for the film,” he added.

Mukerji quipped, 'Dragon' would have been an apt choice if the film were made in China.

“It is a very important day for us. Today is the day when we open the doors of ‘Brahmastra’ to people everywhere,” he added.

Also starring Nargarjuna Akkineni and Mouni Roy, “Brahmastra” will be released on September 9 next year in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

The film is produced by Fox Star Studios, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Prime Focus and Starlight Pictures.