Season 2 · Episode 8
Amish Tripathi & Mukul Deora on Indian Mythology Meets Gaming
“Every great game needs a mythology. India has the greatest mythology ever written — we just haven't built the games yet.”
“The mistake global studios make is thinking India is a market. It's a civilisation. You have to build for the civilisation.”
“Ramayana isn't a story about a king. It's a story about dharma under impossible pressure. That's a game.”
Chapters
- 00:00
Introductions
Amish and Mukul on how they met and why Indian mythology in gaming is inevitable.
- 08:14
The mythology gap
Why India's story universe has never been fully adapted for interactive media.
- 18:30
World-building for games
How Amish approaches building universes that work across novels and games.
- 31:05
The investor thesis
Mukul on why he bet on cultural IP and what the market looks like in 2024.
- 44:20
Building for Bharat
Designing for 1.4 billion players who think in Sanskrit, not English.
- 58:10
What global studios get wrong
The mistakes Western gaming companies make when entering India.
- 01:10:00
What's next
First titles, launch timeline, and the long game for Bhaarat Games.
Show notes
Amish Tripathi, India's bestselling mythological fiction author, joins Mukul Deora, co-founder of Bhaarat Games, for a wide-ranging conversation on cultural IP, storytelling at scale, and what the Age of Bhaarat means for Indian gaming.
In this episode:
Why Ramayana and Mahabharata are the greatest story universes never fully adapted for games
How Amish approaches world-building across novels and now interactive media
The investor thesis behind betting on Indian cultural IP in 2024
What global gaming studios get wrong about India
Building for 1.4 billion players who think in Sanskrit
Guest bios:
Amish Tripathi is the author of the Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra Series, with over 7 million books sold. He is India's fastest-selling fiction author.
Mukul Deora is a Mumbai-based entrepreneur and investor, and co-founder of Bhaarat Games, building India's first mythology-native gaming studio.