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Filmmaker Anand Gandhi has previously enthralled the audience with Ship of Theseus (2013) and Tumbbad (2018). Now, he has returned with his most ambitious venture to date, Maya, an expansive science-fiction fantasy universe, co-created with designer Zain Menon. Conceived as a multi-format, interconnected narrative, Universe combines films, stories, games, and immersive experiences to explore ideas of truth, control, and human potential in the 21st century.
The universe’s first product is a novel, Maya: The Seed Takes Root, which launched on Kickstarter and is narrated by Hugo Weaving. In an exclusive conversation with Hindustan Times, Anand and Zain talk about the creative impulse behind Maya, their collaboration with Hollywood star Hugo Weaving, the challenges of building such a detailed world, and whether this could really be India’s answer to the MCU.
How was Maya born?
When Anand was asked what sparked the idea of creating the universe, he said, “Zain and I have been working closely together for the last 12 years, and we’ve been asking ourselves about the impact of our work. We’ve been wondering if stories can really change the world; there’s enough evidence that they can, just like democracy was a story, money was a story, so we made it into something real. Our ideologies were once stories. Things that Those were the stories by which we live and die.”
He further added, “We were wondering if our stories made the world a little better and how to do that in a more organized way. So, that’s where Maya was born. We thought, let’s treat every other project of ours, Tumbbad, Reign and others, as training wheels, as a trailer of what’s possible. And see if we can systematically propose ideas, frameworks, warnings and inspirations towards creating a better future in the language of stories. So this is where Maya started.”
A universe with no heroes and no villains
One major deviation of Maya from traditional storytelling is its refusal to rely on a hero-versus-villain narrative.
Zain explained, “The dichotomy of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ is wrong. It prevents us from connecting with people we disagree with. We all want civilization to advance, but we have different ideas about how we disagree. So should we villainize people we disagree with, or sit together and talk about what is common? We don’t believe in black and white, good and bad. We The rich and the poor believe in different ways of achieving the same result.”
He continued, “So in Maya, there is no single hero or villain. The hero of the movie may seem perfect to you, but when you read the graphic novel, the antagonist is actually the hero there. What we’re trying to do is tell you where you enter and exit the story, good or bad, and that changes what’s in it and what’s not.”
On bringing Hugo Weaving into the Maya universe.
The pair’s admiration for actor Hugo Weaving has endured for decades.
Anand revealed, “We grew up on his work. Zayn was eight, I was eighteen when we first saw The Matrix. No film before had created such a broad canvas of ideas – cognition, perception, sexuality, technology and capitalism. And Hugo became the vehicle of that moment. The world had never seen a performance like Agent Smith.”
He continued, “They went on and made The Matrix Reloaded, but they also made Vendetta with Hugo, and before that, we saw Hugo in completely different roles in Lord of the Rings. All these amazing anthologies of the 2000s became so formative for me, so making something of that scale and having Hugo in it was always a dream. So when I was on the Sydney Film Festival jury, Hugo and I met, and immediately hit it off. After seeing The Ship, he wanted to spend time talking about the film, but once Hugo arrived, we sat there from midnight to 7 in the morning, and I knew that whatever I did next, he had to be a part of it.
Anand also revealed that Hugo once agreed to star in the American adaptation of Tumbbad. “He also agreed to play a role in the American version of Tumbbad, Raghava, which we were planning. Since then, there has been a desire to collaborate. Maya became the perfect opportunity for it.”
Challenges in making Maya
Discussing the process of creating such a universe, Anand said, “The challenges in creating Maya’s world were intellectual, philosophical, and scientific. Sometimes the challenges of finding the right kind of collaborators, waiting for collaborators that we really want to work with. The intellectual and design challenge of creating something that is progressive and electric, hopefully, that is useful and valuable to the world and is no less exciting or thrilling than something super sexy or violent. So that design challenge was an exciting challenge for us. And Of course, we all had to work very hard, in the last four years, almost all of us have worked 16 hours a day.
Zain said, “With every project, we have stretched our imagination and resources to the limit. Maya is where we are constantly working at the peak of our ability. Every day was hard, but every day was rewarding.”
If Maya can be India’s MCU
As soon as the trailer was released, many fans started comparing it with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Anand disagreed with this label.
He said, “I don’t think Maya is India’s MCU; it’s the new mythology of the world. The MCU is entertaining and playful, and although it was attractive, it doesn’t have the scope of Maya. Maya, in its scope, hopes to engage with questions that the MCU may or may not be connected to. So we would like Maya to be broader, deeper and hopefully resonate with the curiosity of the generation like the MCU did. But we certainly hope that Maya is an upgrade of the last Maybe mythology, including the MCU, not replication.”
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