Dear Madhu Mantena,
Greetings from a little tree-house temple in urban America. I read that in making your film Ramayana 3D you are trying to follow the process that James Cameron did for Avatar, which is super exciting to me, because after I saw Avatar I thought that the world needs a Ramayana film like that!
I understand that your crew has been working on this for some years, and I would love to contribute by sending copies of my book (Vegan Ramayana: The Shakahara StarFire Way of Rama) to you and to your directors, Nitesh Tiwari and Ravi Udyavar. Here’s why:
1. If you were to present a veganized Ramayana as I have done, the impact would be massive: millions upon millions of humans would be influenced to go vegan which would help the environment, reduce the incredible suffering of the cows, and improve the health of the humans. By the way, James Cameron is vegan, and he serves only vegan foods on his movie sets!
2. Beyond the vegan theme, achieved by presenting coconut products instead of dairy products (but not coconuts harvested by monkey labor), such as pouring coconut oil — instead of ghee — on the puja fire, a further doctrine of ahimsa can be portrayed with the motif “elevating the wounded rather than killing the wicked.” For example, in my short and easy-to-read version, instead of killing the demons from Janasthana, Sri Rama shoots elevating arrows into Khara, Dushana, and their fourteen thousand rakshasas. “The celestial beings in all the realms beat loudly on their copper-drums and showered down perfumed petals of light onto the fourteen thousand glowing orbs, and Shiva appeared to enjoy the mighty spectacle.”
3. My book contains many scenes which would be quite beautiful to see in your film Ramayana 3D such as science fiction elements, like UFOs, already present in the ancient tale. For example, “The vanaras stood dazzled by the approaching vehicle, a triangular shaped craft with a grid of multi-colored lights across the top. Shiva beamed out of the spaceship in a blinding reddish-brown light which knocked Sugriva to the ground. Everyone bowed low before the Supreme Being, and he announced the new Plan for the coming scenes…"
Please send your mailing addresses (including phone numbers) so that I may send copies of Vegan Ramayana: The Shakahara StarFire Way of Rama to you and your crew. I would be so happy to contribute to your exciting intention of creating such a grand Ramayana for the whole world to see!
With enthusiasm and much respect,
Teja Shankara
Coconuts: manueltapi on Pixabay. Cows: René Schindler on Pixabay.
