Prince Vaali

India's eagerness to boast about the costliness of their films never ceases to amaze me. Their film culture is truly unique. The latest costliest film under production is the new superhero/sci-fi film, Prince Vaali. A big press release went out to the usual Indian film news sites and gave a whole bunch of reasons why the film will be a success. A large part of me wonders who they are trying to convince... 　　Prince Vaali is apparently a super hero modeled after the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman. Much is made in the press release about Vaali being the first Indian superhero to have a logo. India's previous cinematic do-gooders were apparently doomed to fail without them. On the whole there are few things about this film that inspire confidence in me beyond the braggadocio surrounding the logo. Another potential weakness is that the film is written and directed by a newcomer, Vishu Tanay, on whom I can find nothing. Not a good sign for a project of such allegedly massive scale. 　　Still optimistic? Let me help you with that... 　　The first film is in pre-production now, and they've planned five sequels to complete the Prince Vaali story. That is quite a commitment, but that's not all. The film is to be a multi-lingual one, not an unusual practice in India. Typically they'll film the movie in one language and have different dubs made for various markets. It is cheap to make, and maximizes profit. However, that isn't how Prince Vaali is approaching this, apparently. Instead, the film will have four different lead actors. One each for Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, and Spanish language versions of the film. A bit risky? Of course! But hey, you can't make money without spending money, right? 　　In fact, the only thing that is even the slightest bit encouraging about this project is the fact that the pre-production, art design, and CG are being worked on in the US. I love Indian film, don't get me wrong, but their CG is really pretty atrocious, without exception. The first concept art below looks good, but I have a feeling it ain't gonna end up exactly like that in the finished project. 　　From what I can tell about the plot it involves the monkey god superhero fighting alien robots. Um, well, the idea has potential, but I remain cautiously pessimistic...