She began with boundless energy and optimism, but director Arati Kadav — known for one of 2025’s most-discussed films Mrs — is now weary of an industry she says is risk-averse. Her dream? To make a big, mainstream sci-fi film. After Cargo (2019) starring Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi, she followed it up with the award-winning short The Astronaut and His Parrot (2022) with Ali Fazal. In 2023, she began her third sci-fi feature, only to watch it stuck in limbo. Having invested years and even relinquished intellectual property, Kadav declared in a tweet: “I have decided I will never write sci-fi for any Indian producer anymore.”

Over a call, Kadav told mid-day the repeated cycle of investing years of passion and energy into projects that stall has pushed her to step away from collaborating with mainstream producers. She said, "I’ve been very passionate about science fiction. This is the third time I’ve worked on a project for almost two years, and then it just went nowhere. It becomes very defeating, you know? Back-to-back, you pour yourself into something because you’re passionate about it. I want to make a big mainstream sci-fi film, a blockbuster that everyone can watch. A film my parents would be proud of, kids would be fascinated by, young people would say “wow, that’s cool.” And every time I get a chance, I work very hard, but then something or the other happens and the project collapses. This is the third time I’ve worked on a sci-fi concept for over a year, almost two years. And in the process, you even give away your IP sometimes because you’re working in collaboration. Then the projects just sit in limbo. You’re left wondering, what was all that for? It’s very frustrating. That’s where that tweet came from."

A still from ‘The Astronaut and His Parrot’; (right) A still from ‘Cargo’