India, March 17 -- On his way to birthing his debut feature film Sapiens, West India-based indie filmmaker Junayed Alavi has grounded his longtime-coming magnum opus in experimental layers of sci-fi and realism. Having crossed paths with Marvel Studios' Moon Knight and Werewolf by Night producer Peter Cameron for an equally genre-defying horror short, Hunger (screened at Festival del Cinema di Cefalu in Italy in 2023), Alavi is once again teaming up with Hollywood connections to make his dreams come true. His arduous journey from a lower middle-class Bengali Muslim family was "far from easy." Nevertheless, the ensuing outcome has been "incredibly rewarding," as he points out ahead of his feature film's premiere.

In HT's talks with him, w...