Siddharth Roy Kapur: Mentor-mentee relationship between Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai at the core of ‘Rocket Boys’

Mumbai : Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, who produced the web series ‘Rocket Boys’ and is gearing up for the second season of the show, explains how the mentor-mentee relationship between Dr Homi J. Bhabha and Dr Vikram Sarabhai was the core and celebrating point of the narrative in the series.

He also takes the reference from his real life and shares his thoughts on how in the initial days of his career some of his mentors like Ronnie Screwvala and the late Alyque Padamsee influenced him in life.

In conversation with IANS, Sidharth said, “While we all knew the story of Dr Bhabha and Dr Sarabhai, their contribution to our country and to the science community from our textbooks and history books, we knew very little of the friendship and the deeper relationship they shared in their lives. Both of them had quite a distinct view on certain matters that were going on in the country back then, but Dr Bhabha was a great mentor to Dr Sarabhai. In our lives, we all have those kinds of mentor-mentee relationship where you get the nudge towards the right direction by someone you look up to.”

“From a storyteller’s point of view, that relationship is also bringing drama, emotion and engaging elements in the story. That is entertaining. So when Abhay was highlighting that aspect, we as producers were like, ‘Yes, this will resonate with all of us’. For web series, since it is a long format, some elements have to stay with the audience for long…that is how Rocket Boys become a celebration of the mentor-mentee relationship between Dr Bhabha and Dr Sarabhai,” he explained.

Siddharth on the other hand started his career with an internship in UTV where he met Ronnie Screwvala. Eventually, Siddharth became CEO of UTV Motion Pictures and had a long career span before he started his own production house Roy Kapur Films in 2017.

He shared his story of the mentor-mentee relationship.

“I think there are two people I must say are very influential in my life and Ronnie is one of them. He is a mentor to me, he has always been very supportive and I have looked up to him. I somewhat always wanted to emulate him and it was since the time I did my summer internship with UTV Motion Pictures back in the late 90s. At times it is important for a senior person to see the potential in you and help you to explore the talent and give the right direction. It could be in any field, be it cinema, art, sports. So I have a very strong mentor-mentee relationship with Ronnie. Another personality I was very influenced by when I was a youngster was Mr Alyque Padamsee.”

“I used to do a lot of theatre in school and college. I admired Padamsee sir, how he would conduct himself, his thoughts, the genius he was in advertising…yes, I was totally in awe!” shared Siddharth.

‘Rocket Boys’, featuring – Jim Sarbh, Ishwak Singh, Regina Cassandra, Saba Azad, Rajit Kapur among others – is streaming on SonyLIV.

–IANS