Niki Iyer, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2024, UCLA, Screenwriting Award

Project Type: Pilot

Genre: Political Drama

Length: 66 pages 

Field of Science: Physics

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

The son of a poor fisherman working off the coast of Tamil Nadu, AVUL PAKIR JAINULABDEEN ABDUL KALAM (early 20s) sells newspapers to pay for his training as a fighter pilot. During his final Indian Air Force exam, Kalam nabs the ninth ranking, just one rank away from becoming a fighter pilot. Dejected, he spends the night in debauchery and gully cricket while being assuaged that he can take over his father’s fishing business. Though clearly drunk and unfit, Kalam sits in his final graduate science exam and passes with the highest rank. Seeing his potential, Indian Space Research Organization head HGS MURTHY (40s) invites him into TEAM ROHINI, India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle project. Elsewhere, Kalam and his longtime girlfriend SHANTHI are caught together, leading her, a Hindu, to be married off. He promises never to fall in love again.

Years later, after the succes with Rohini, Kalam, now in his late 40s and ISRO’s de facto superstar, visits NASA and Langley where he learns that India is being left behind in the nuclear race. Upon returning from the US, he starts a nuclear missile project under the guidance of good friend R. VENKATARAMAN (40s). The missile, Prithvi, misfires, nearly exploding. As a result, ISRO denounces Kalam but not before he obtains resources from PRIME MINISTER ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE (50s) and the help of fellow scientist and rival R. CHIDAMBARAM (50s) to take another stab at a nuclear missile. As Kalam attempts to conduct the tests of nuclear missile POKHRAN-II in the few minutes in which the CIA satellite is not roving above India, he receives political backlash from other international intelligence coming from Europe. Under the threat of imminent war, Kalam, in disguise as an Indian soldier and diplomat, successfully completes the nuclear tests, establishing India as a nuclear power.

Nearly a decade later, Kalam, now President of India, is interviewed about his experiences as a politician. He instead reminisces about his time as a scientist for ISRO. When the interviewer questions which is more prestigious, he smiles, reminding her that “politics is science.”