Saibal Dasgupta/TNN
Beijing, Nov 21: Mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi said Aamir Khan Productions stole ideas from her book, In the wonderland of numbers for Shakuntala Devi in Beijing. Bollywood flick Taare Zameen Par without giving her credit for it. She is now planning to produce her own movie based on the story in the book.
The 69-year-old wizard and author of 22 books, who has been stunning audiences across the world since childhood when she first displayed her flair for numbers, is on a world tour to accomplish a dream project. She is in the process of setting up a global institution on mathematics that will train young minds and do research in Vedic Mathematics.
"Some of the things shown in Taare Zameen Par have been taken straight from my book. People ask me why I don't sue the producer of the Aamir Khan movie," she told TNN. "I expect him to write a letter explaining why he did this," she said.
Shakuntala Devi revealed some amazing facts during the interview with TNN in Beijing. One of them is that no information technology company has ever tried to involve her in any mathematical project. This is interesting given her worldwide popularity and India's strength in the IT industry.
"I have lots of readers from the IT industry. But no IT company has approached me so far," she said. "I am computer illiterate, you know" she further said. But the institution that she is in the process of establishing in Bangalore, will conduct research on mathematics related to computer, she said.
Shakuntala Devi is worried that the advent of computers is harming the thinking ability of children, who are increasing losing interest in mathematics. "Mathematics has already lost its popularity in the West. Now, I feel this is happening in India as well," she said.
This is the second time when a film producer has stolen her ideas, she said. A Rajesh Khanna starrer, Red Rose used ideas from her short story, The whole world is mad , which was published in Femina magazine, she said.
She said she had talked to several producers including Kamala Haasan to turn her book, In the wonderland of numbers into a movie. The story is about a nine-year-old girl who goes through a transformation from being a mathematics hater to a mathematical genius.
"One producer asked if he can show the heroine as an 18-19 year old girl and introduce a disco number. I said it will destroy the whole purpose of the movie. My mission is to make people fall in love with mathematics and feel the joy of it" she said.
"I am considering Rajnikant or some other producer for the movie. I wrote the book as a movie script", she said.
She said Kamala Haasan told her the proposed movie could cause a worldwide sensation if she found an intelligent producer capable of utilising the material in the book. "But he cannot make this movie. He is usually the hero of his movies. Also, he does not love numbers that much," she said.
"From childhood, I have been asked to compete against computers and I somehow regarded it as my enemy," she said laughing. But her dream project in Bangalore will involve experts from the IT industry as well as rope in Sanskrit scholars who can make sense of intricate Vedic mathematics.
"You know a lot of mathematical knowledge is stored in shlokas and sutras and it is not easy to make the most out of them. We need specialists to research and develop this area," she said.