Though Zombie films have been a favourite genre for a long time in India, no one dared to make a film on the subject. With a new young Indian audience tuning into international pop culture trends, Luke Kenny an Indian ex-video jockey, critic, musician, director, producer and actor and his partner scriptwriter Devaki Singh felt it right to slip in with a zombie film and rightly named it Rise of the Zombie (ROTZ). The film is all about Neil Parker, a passionate wildlife photographer who pays more attention to his wildlife than his human life. As a result, his relationships with the real world suffer and when his girlfriend walks out on him, he resigns himself to isolation and nature. But a chance occurrence changes all that. Changes that he can't seem to handle, changes that seem to take his humanity away...changes that seem unable to change back. The story follows Neil’s journey into a darkness that has to be seen to be believed. A monster that seems to be rising out of the depths of desolation and agony-soulless, depraved and out of control. Luke plays Neil Parker, a wildlife photographer who later becomes infected and turns into a zombie. Tellychakkkar.com in a detailed conversation with Devaki. Excerpts: Between you and Luke, who came up first with the idea of making a zombie film? Well, we have a huge bank of scripts in various stages of development, each requiring its own budget yet each needing their own space and time. And Zombie films have been a favorite genre for a long time. We realised that there has never been a zombie film made in India and with a new young audience tuning into international pop culture trends...it felt right to slip in with this flick. Have you thought of something as unique for ROTZ as well? ROTZ is unique in a manner that it is a simple story about one man who starts turning into something strange- a creature that starts wasting and deteriorating- mentally, physically and emotionally. It's an original zombie film, where we follow this one man's unfortunate situation. Usually zombie films are about a bunch of humans trying to survive a zombie attack. So we are just starting out with the beginning of one. Considering zombie films are quite popular in Hollywood, are you targeting both the Indian and international audience? Most definitely. It is a film for any zombie fan or a person who would like to get to know one. It is a first- Indian’s making a zombie film, so we decided to tell a simple story- as I said earlier. As for the international audience, they've seen tons of zombie films-but may be not a simple zombie origin film. Hopefully, they'd like to indulge in some Indian zombification. Luke has been a musician, a VJ, an actor and also a director while you have been into fashion designing, writing and is also a professional artist. How easy or difficult is it for partners both in their personal and professional lives when they are associated with the same project? Did you ever have any clash of ideas? Luke and I have been together for a very long time. We share lots of interests and passions like music, movies, books and love for animals. We also travel a lot together. So it's fun coming up with thoughts and ideas. But of course it's a creative process and every person has a different perception in certain areas... Yes!! We do indulge in loads of arguments and get into shouting matches. But that's part of the 'thrashing' out process. How did you hit upon the story and when did you start shooting? Could you talk a bit on the film’s storyline? When is the film releasing? As I mentioned earlier, it's follows the story of Neil Parker- a wildlife photographer, who is so passionate about what he does, he ends up neglecting his personal life. He takes off to remote regions and forests and forgets about his city life. On one such trip into the deep jungle, something happens. He finds himself changing... physically and mentally... more in the film. We started the shoot for the Bombay scenes in April last and then travelled to Uttarakhand in May for the remote areas and deep forests. The film's aimed for a 5 April, 2013 release. Why this sudden fascination towards zombies and vampires? It's a world waiting to catch on, in the Indian audiences. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and many such wild creatures have been around forever- in international cinema. They are just being tapped now for a new Indian audience which has only been served ghosts and women in white saris. They are now 'hungry' for more. They've now been fed on True Blood. The Twilight films, The Walking Dead etc., loads of video games and graphic novels too. So the time is opportune to bring on the dark creatures. Navdeep Singh’s Rock The Shaadi and Saif Ali Khan’s Go Goa Gone are also zombie films which are in the fray. Do you feel the heat? No. We have no clue about these films. What little I've heard is that Go Goa Gone is a romantic comedy. So what I gather is that it fits into the typical Hindi film mould and just happens to have zombies. ROTZ is a drama/horror, a simple story with realistic treatment. You are touting it as a trilogy. Do you think your film would be as popular as the Twilight Saga or the Harry Potter series? Wow 'touting' is such a lofty word. Why should I compare my films to these? These are huge scale, big budget monsters targeted at the already existing fans of the very successful books. We just wanted to tell a simple zombie story, as we are huge horror film buffs and moreover there was no Indian zombie film. We got the opportunity to make our film and went ahead and made it. In India Zombies are not popular yet. Luke is returning to films after a long break. Devaki, didn’t you want to try your hands in acting too? Maybe I'll tap my inner zombie and zombify myself in the next one...About Luke's acting - guess no one has a character in their film stories who has 'different' looks- as in 'white'- in spite of 'different' types and genres of films being made now, and in spite of having so many 'colourful' characters, in the Indian film industry. About Luke's multi-pronged career- he's got his hands full with his international music channel 9xO, working on putting together a music festival being festival director for 'Simply The Blues'...and creating music for ROTZ too.