On Thursday, actor R Madhavan stated that Indian cinema has largely ignored stories about science and technology and its many pioneers, such as legendary mathematician Aryabhatta and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Madhavan was speaking at the India Forum in Cannes alongside Union minister Anurag Thakur, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, lyricist and CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi, and American journalist Scott Roxborough, whose directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Market on Thursday.

“From Aryabhatta to Sundar Pichai, we have such extraordinary stories as far as science and technology is concerned. We are not making movies about these people. These people are the aspirations for the youngsters around the world. They have bigger fans than stars and actors put together,” A news agency quoted Madhavan as saying.

“I’ve met these guys from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh who started a new Metaverse and are into web 3.0… We’re not making movies about such success stories… There’s one aspect of India that is so aspirational today, that we as filmmakers or people talking about India, are completely ignoring and that is the excellence in science and technology,” Madhavan continued.

Citing Hollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan, known for his acclaimed science-fiction films Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet, the 51-year-old actor-director stated, “When Christopher Nolan makes a film called ‘Inception’ or ‘Interstellar’, the reviewers go there afraid that they hope they get what he’s trying to say because they don’t want to give the review and sound like an idiot. Because they didn’t get it, they know that it’s a scientist who’s making a movie. That’s how qualified he is.”

“I still haven’t understood ‘Inception’ till now but I have all the respect for the guy because he has that much knowledge about science. And he’s absolutely unconcerned about the fact that the audience may or may not get it,” he proceeded.