HarperCollins India presents ‘Travails With The Alien’ by Satyajit Ray

presents a slice of hitherto unseen, undocumented cinema history

Travails with The Alien

The Film That Was Never Made and

Other Adventures with Science Fiction

by

Satyajit Ray

 

The untold story behind India’s first-of-its-kind sci-fi film that Satyajit Ray was to direct. His screenplay, original story and writings make this a rare and compelling read on sci-fi and cinema.

In the 1960s Satyajit Ray wrote a screenplay for what would have been the first-of-its-kind sci-fi film to be made in India.

It was called The Alien…

 

 

 

It was based on his own short story “Bonkubabur Bandhu”, about an alien landing in Bengal and befriending a boy. On being prompted by Arthur C. Clarke, who found the screenplay promising, Ray sent the script to Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, who agreed to back it, and Peter Sellers was approached. Then started the “Ordeals of the Alien” as Ray calls it, as even after a series of trips to the US, UK and France, the film was never made, and more shockingly, some fifteen years later, Ray watched Steven Spielberg’s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind and later E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and realized these bore uncanny resemblances to his script The Alien, including the way the ET was designed!

Satyajit Ray was a master of science fiction writing. Through his Professor Shonku stories and other fiction and non-fiction pieces, he explored the genre from various angles. A slice of hitherto undocumented cinema history, Travails with the Alien includes Ray’s detailed essay on the project with the full script of The Alien, as well as the original short story on which the screenplay was based. These, presented alongside correspondence between Ray and Peter Sellers, Arthur C. Clarke, Marlon Brando, Hollywood producers who showed interest, and a fascinating essay by the young student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism who broke the Spielberg story, make this book a rare and compelling read on science fiction, cinema and the art of adaptation.

AUTHOR BIO

Satyajit Ray (1921–92) was one of the greatest film-makers of his time. His first film Pather Panchali (1955) won an award at the Cannes Film Festival and established his reputation as a major director. Over the next forty years, he made a number of films, many of which went on to be acknowledged as all-time classics. He is the only Indian to receive the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He was also a prolific writer on cinema and his writings include Our Films Their Films, Speaking of Films and Deep Focus.

 

For interviews, reviews and excerpts please call or email:

+91 8826946430 Percy.bharucha@harpercollins-india.com

 +91 7838655086 kekuchina.zeliang@harpercollins-india.com

PB | Non-Fiction |  224 pp | Rs 699