Nambi Narayanan on his biopic: Wanted younger generation, laymen to know about rocketry

Having fought a nearly three-decade-long legal battle to clear himself from a fabricated Spy Case, ISRO's veteran Rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan is gearing up for the release of his biopic. 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect', starring RMadhavan, is also a film that the versatile actor has directed and scripted. At a special event in the Dubai Expo, organized by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Madhavan and Nambi Narayanan spoke about their respective journey with regards the biopic and how it was made.

According to Nambi Narayanan, he firmly held the notion that his story must be told raw and without cinematic effects(dance sequences in a dream) and a hero performing stunts. He felt that very few could meet the requirements of such a story, as the actor would have to understand the script about Rocketry, while also resembling Nambi Narayanan and behaving like a rocket scientist. He also had an urge that the younger generation and laymen must know about, understand Rocketry and its inception in India, despite it being a complex subject.

"This meant that the actor should have an ability to understand the concept. Madhavan is basically an engineer and he can understand the subject. When I tried to narrate certain incidents to him where I saved Abdul Kalam from a lab accident, while conducting a science experiment, he got that point in no time" Narayanan recalls.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

R. Madhavan touched upon how he had taken up to seven months to complete the first version of the film's script, following which he approached Nambi Narayanan for seeking his approval of the script, as was agreed upon.

"With seven months of research and writing, I thought I had gotten the details right. But then, after meeting Nambi sir for his approval of the script, I got to know about his education at Princeton, his rapport with Dr Abdul Kalam and Vikram Sarabhai and his work in France, Russia, Scotland and the journey just unfolded. After that conversation, I deleted that first script and then took around one and a half years to get a whole new script ready" Madhavan said.

The actor also touched upon how it was decided to make the film in English as well, given that hardly very few Indian films are released originally in English. Madhavan said that he was discouraged from making it in English. However, he felt that the story was about a man who had been wronged and was put down because he was bringing in technological change. On having acted, directed, scripted and produced Rocketry, Madhavan admitted that he was sceptical of doing it all simultaneously in one project, but was passionate and compelled to do this film, based on the life of a veteran ISRO scientist.

"If you know that the truth is with you... you continue in that path... fight till the end if someone has wronged you" the 80-year-old Nambi Narayanan signs off.