Two of India's famous epics about gods, demons and cataclysmic battles have inspired a slew of films that will use elaborate visual effects, not just the battle between good and evil, to lure modern viewers.
The Ramayana and Mahabharata, two of Hinduism's crucial texts, are regarded as allegorical lessons in righteous living integral to much of India's cultural consciousness.
The popularity of these epics was earlier limited to books and regional language cinema until about two decades ago when they were adapted into TV series aired on national television.
The serials were so popular that they managed to empty city streets, forced changes in train timings and got their actors elected as members of parliament. Some people even prayed in front of their television screens while the show was on.
The serials used tacky special effects to depict battle scenes but were such a hit that several filmmakers reasoned they could top that success with films that use high-tech techniques like those in The Lord of the Rings films.
"If you are making a period film for the modern audience who have seen the magic of animation, you have to give them similar viewing pleasures or else they will just not see it," said Ravi Chopra, one of the industry's top directors.
Chopra and director Rajkumar Santoshi are planning full-length films on Mahabharata and Ramayana respectively. Another film on Mahabharata by acclaimed filmmaker Bobby Bedi is in pre-production.
While Ramayana is the story of warrior-god Ram, who defeats a demon-king to free his wife with the help of an army of monkeys, Mahabharata deals with a dynastic struggle for power that ends in victory for the righteous.
One of the films planned is on a sub-plot from Mahabharata about queen Draupadi, who is wagered and lost in a game of dice by her five husbands.
"It will be a quintessential adaptation from the epic but focusing on Draupadi," director Rituparno Ghosh said, about his film named after the queen. "It will look at her in a different light."
These multi-plot epics have fired the imagination of Indians for centuries and have also influenced the art and culture of Southeast Asia from Indonesia to Cambodia.
Some critics say that falling back on the epics for a story showed Bollywood's lack of creativity. But the filmmakers dismiss the charge.
"Our epics are so rich in values and they are a true reflection of what our country was then," said Santoshi. "It is our duty to make films about our glorious past and present it before the world so that they can know India better."
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