Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 10, 2017)

In 2067, it will be common to have an artificial heart because oxygen would have almost completely depleted from planet Earth. So ‘Bad Martian’ Nawazuddin Siddiqui is smuggling oxygen in canisters to a neighbouring planet, while Jackky Bhagnani, who has little time left on the life-clock and Prachi Desai, more Artificial Intelligence and less human, are trying to salvage the situation. This futuristic sci-fi plot is the crux of Jackky’s upcoming production, Carbon. A threeminute clip from the film will be screened at a dinner-gala attended by United Nation delegates, actors and members of the Global Citizen Foundation as well as other international celebrities later this month.

“Last year, when Delhi was covered in smog, pictures of children wearing masks, sitting in classrooms, was a common sight. I watched Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary on climate change, Beyond The Flood, which explained how there would be no snowfall after 2040, around the same time and decided to take a sci-fi thriller-like approach to create awareness about the issue,” says Jackky, who jumped into a three-month-long research with the writer-director duo Maitrey Bajpai and Rameez Khan and brought musician duo Salim-Sulaiman on board. He then approached Nawaz who invited him home to narrate the story in detail. Three days later, he called Jackky to tell him to lock his dates.

“Nawaz is the antagonist, illegally trading oxygen which is barred by all governments around the world, but through his dialogues, explains the ground reality to my character,” says Jackky, who shot the film last December and January, importing masks used by the German military as props that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen in the film. “It’s challenging to make a sci-fi film on the budget we had. But instead of making a film with mediocre VFX throughout, we shortlisted 12-15 crucial shots and gave effects of international standards to them. I am hoping that this will lead to more futuristic films being made under my banner,” he signs off.