She began with boundless energy and optimism, but director Arati Kadav — known for one of 2025’s most-discussed films Mrs — is now weary of an industry she says is risk-averse. Her dream? To make a big, mainstream sci-fi film. After Cargo (2019) starring Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi, she followed it up with the award-winning short The Astronaut And His Parrot (2022) with Ali Fazal. In 2023, she began her third sci-fi feature, only to watch it stuck in limbo. Having invested years and even relinquished intellectual property, Kadav declared in a tweet: “I have decided I will never write sci-fi for any Indian producer anymore.”

Over a call, Kadav told mid-day the repeated cycle of investing years of passion and energy into projects that stall has pushed her to step away from collaborating with mainstream producers.

She said, "I’ve been very passionate about science fiction. This is the third time I’ve worked on a project for almost two years, and then it just went nowhere. It becomes very defeating, you know? Back-to-back, you pour yourself into something because you’re passionate about it. I want to make a big mainstream sci-fi film, a blockbuster that everyone can watch. A film my parents would be proud of, kids would be fascinated by, young people would say 'wow, that’s cool'. And every time I get a chance, I work very hard, but then something or the other happens and the project collapses. This is the third time I’ve worked on a sci-fi concept for over a year, almost two years. And in the process, you even give away your IP sometimes because you’re working in collaboration. Then the projects just sit in limbo. You’re left wondering, what was all that for? It’s very frustrating. That’s where that tweet came from."

Kadav describes the system as structurally incapable of nurturing sci-fi projects. She points to an industry that prioritizes what looks “safe on paper” over innovation or imagination, leaving little space for creators to experiment with ambitious concepts.

"Working with a production house is not an easy process. It becomes laborious because I have to constantly take them along with me -- explain, justify, listen to feedback, argue my point. It’s exhausting. And after all that, they still don’t get it. I really believe you can make good mainstream, funny, accessible science fiction. Cargo itself was mainstream sci-fi. But something happens in the process of putting a project together—it just doesn’t come alive. I don’t know why, even after years of work, decks, meetings, sitting with them endlessly. I also feel it’s the market’s risk-taking ability. Because there isn’t money, there isn't the bandwidth to take risks. Everybody just wants to rehash what’s been done. I think the industry has become so risk-averse. It’s like a content pipeline madness—people only care about what looks safe on paper, not about what audiences might actually like. Producers are picking projects that are 'safe on paper'.”

Won't the success of Mrs embolden stakeholders? "I still have the energy of a child for this genre. I can wake up in the middle of the night and start working on sci-fi. But all the sci-fi I’ve made so far has been self-funded. And it’s not like I had money. I was literally broke, but still funding those stories because of my passion. At some point, though, you need financing. Good science fiction requires decent budgets, not something an individual can bear alone. You need producers and organizations to come together. That’s why my frustration burst out. I am exhausted."

Even the much-hyped entry of OTT platforms, she says, has failed to deliver on the promise of risk-taking. While streamers initially appeared to widen the spectrum of stories being told, they too have increasingly gravitated towards formula-driven content, leaving science fiction out of the mainstream conversation.

"There was hope OTTs would broaden the landscape. But they haven’t delivered on that hope. Yes, there’s a slightly wider set of stories being told, and one should be grateful. But it’s not as wide as we thought. They’re also going back to safe formulas -- cop dramas, family sagas and comedy shows. They’re not innovating as much as expected. Also, when I was younger, I had that innocence and passion. I remember how I made Cargo. I stayed at it. But later, you start balancing things, and you slip into a kind of survival mode with your profession. In that mode, you can’t really attempt these kinds of experiments anymore. When you’re starting out, there are a lot of illusions—nobody is expecting anything from you, so you feel free to innovate and try new things. But later, you begin to play it safe. You start saying, ‘I want the safety of this much budget, I want the security of that much backing’, and that safety takes over."

Out of the box may be a term loosely used by many Hindi film directors, but there isn’t a more fitting way to describe Arati Kadav’s creations. A prime example is her latest short film, The Astronaut And His Parrot, which revolves around a space explorer who, in his final moments in space, desperately tries to send messages to his daughter. The signals, however, are received by a parrot in a fortune teller’s stall. The sci-fi film, fronted by Ali Fazal, has earned Kadav the best director award at the Fantasia International Short Film Competition in Canada.

Kadav is pleasantly surprised by the win. “[The victory] is significant for an Indian sci-fi movie. I am thankful to Ali Fazal, who gave his 100 per cent to the film, and to the wonderful team. Our goal has always been to make a convincing sci-fi film with maximum on-camera effects, and to use VFX with precision. My team’s passion to create a great movie can be seen in the [final product],” she says.

The award comes as a reinforcement for Kadav who, growing up in Nagpur, hoped to become a filmmaker. She worked as a software developer in the US before switching gears to pursue her first love — movies. Her debut feature, Cargo (2019), received praise on its release.

Asked about her release plans for The Astronaut And His Parrot, she says, “I am doing the festival rounds, and am in talks with a few platforms, including one that distributes films in the US.”

She is also helming the Hindi remake of the Malayalam gem, The Great Indian Kitchen (2021).