Making your way back home on the metro, using the ATM every time your cash runs dry, riding the elevator at your workplace, running your heaters in the winter, hot water for your daily showers, internet to connect with your children abroad…Most of these are such an integral part of our daily lives that we take them for granted. Now imagine one day when all of this is taken away from you. How will you survive? How will life adjust itself? This Friday, on the 15th of November at 9 PM, National Geographic Channel rolls out its 2-hour, gripping new feature film, called ‘The Blackout’, envisaging the story of a national power failure in USA caused by a cyber-attack. Gritty, visceral and completely immersive, the drama exposes just how vulnerable the modern day reliance on technology has made our urban populations, and the hellish realities of a 10-day blackout. “It isn’t science fiction anymore. Our team of researchers interviewed leading experts in various fields — cyber security, search and rescue, emergency medicine, sociology, engineering and more. This film is obviously a drama, but we were determined to be as informed as possible, and we spent countless hours trying to get it right. We needed to know everything that would be affected in a 10-day nationwide blackout … and that turned out to be basically everything,” said Jonathan Rudd, director at Raw Television, the multi-award winning production company behind the hit series Banged Up Abroad and the acclaimed feature documentary The Imposter. Talking about the relevance of the path-breaking concept behind this film, Debarpita Banerjee, VP Marketing, National Geographic & FOX International Channels, said, “While ‘The Blackout’ is based on a cyber-attack that strikes USA and causes a complete power wipe-out hence, yet the truth is that any modern day city or nation is just as susceptible to a crisis of this nature. In India itself, electricity & power issues are as acute as they could get. Add to that, the fact that electrical back-up for our every need, is something we take for granted. Poised at a time of technological advancement, such as this, if our power grids were to fail at a macro level, our lives would get paralysed, and we would be left feeling crippled in a very significant way. ‘The Blackout’ gives the thinking viewer a subject to chew on, and tips to combat this very real ordeal.” The Blackout combines startling user-generated footage from real blackouts in New York & San Diego as well as when disasters such as Hurricane Sandy struck – all of this intercut with scripted, dramatic footage shot in feature-film style, resulting in a terrifyingly real feeling that this disaster could very likely be yours. What is especially unsettling is that all of this pans out over a mere ten days. However at the root of all of this, the film forces you to take a cold, hard look at how or whether at all you would be prepared, if out of the blue, this massive crisis were to strike, and also opens your eyes up to how you would have to strengthen your own defences. Brace yourselves to witness the unfolding of this horrifying modern-day ordeal with The Blackout’ on Friday, the 15th of November at 9 PM only on National Geographic Channel.