Lawrence Bender, who produced the latter, says he had a 'serious work discussion with Aamir Khan.' FYI contemplates the consequences

Will the 3 Idiots meet the Inglourious Basterds?

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Will the 3 Idiots meet the Inglourious Basterds?

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Lawrence Bender, who produced the latter, says he had a 'serious work discussion with Aamir Khan.'u00a0FYI contemplates the consequences

Lawrence Bender has bent it yet again. If the name doesn't ring a bell, he's the guy who produced Reservoir Dogs and all of Quentin Tarantino's films, with the exception of Death Proof. Good Will Hunting, The Mexican, An Inconvenient Truth, Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction, too, so you know where he's coming from. He is also part of the Global Zero initiative, which aims at a nuclear weapon-free world. FYI settled for a quick chat at the screening of his new documentaryu00a0-- Countdown to Zerou00a0-- which supports this cause. Excerpts from the brief tryst.

See, everyone is talking green, but no one is discussing the threat that nuclear weapons pose to humanity. We need to convince each other to stop the mad race to join theu00a0 'nuclear power list'. Even current nuclear powers need to realise that if they want the earth to breathe life, they need to destroy these weapons of mass destruction.

Say you had just 24 hours to live, nuclear war or whatever. what would you do?
I'd make sure the world never ended!

Why are filmmakers so obsessed with the 'humanity coming to an end' thing?
That's because they see the 'fear' that others neglect.

So you think 2012 sensed the same fear?
I think the film was crap. There was no logic behind it. But if you see my documentary, it walks tall on proofs and reasoning.

Stills from Countdown to Zero

Selling 'fear' is a profitable proposition for filmmakers. Isn't it?
Yes, it is, but I'm not doing it for money. I just don't want the human race to be history.

Why do you think Indian films don't win Oscars?
Even I've pondered over the question for a long time. The Namesake by Mira Nair was a huge hit. Even My Name is Khan is doing so well in the United States.

Islam is not about terrorism. Will you ever make a film that will help people shed the stereotypes attached to it?u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
It could be an interesting storyline, but I haven't though of it yet.

The weapon or the mindu00a0-- which is more fatal?
The mind, which decides when to pull the trigger.

And what about women?
Will have to think about it!

Did you discuss business with B-town when you were in Mumbai?
I have planted some seeds. I had a serious work discussion with Aamir Khan. Nothing more to reveal yet.

A NEW, CLEAR WORLD
Nuclear weapons must be abolished before they abolish usu00a0-- that's the core of this 2 hr 15 minute documentary. The film leaves its mark with some dreadful visuals of real nuclear incidents, and you're convinced that you wouldn't like to die like this. First, it traces the roots of an infamous nuclear evolution, and tells you why the development of such weaponry sounded logical.u00a0

Then, it takes you through the greed for Ferraris and Lamborghinis that designed smugglers of nuclear materials, and why Russia still remains a threat to nuclear stability. It's at this juncture that you start feeling if the documentary has been made to show the US as an intelligent and responsible keeper of nuclear weapons.

The documentary makes a mockery of Russia at several occasions. "Once, a nuclear missile was accidentally launched by the US; when the Russian army discovered it, they handed over the control of their warheads to their president. Thank God he wasn't drunk, else we would've been dead by now," says one of the experts interviewed in the documentary.

Another instance is when an expert says, "the problem is not that US has close to half of the nuclear weapons in the world. The problem is, even Russia has it." And the film also does some Pak bashing. The collected facts establish that the baap of Pakistani nuclear weapons was not an intelligent scientist, but an intelligent smuggler and organiser, and how the Taliban-influenced army can take into possession a stock of nuclear weapons in Pakistan any time.

The film even takes you through minute details, like the one where they say that the nuclear particles would enter our body through ears, and rip us apart, as if a bomb has been planted inside us. However, it doesn't talk of solutions with equal skill and focus. The end is hurried and not concrete.