Violence flared following the acquittal of four LAPD officers for the beating of a black motorist Rodney King in 1991. And Bell tells The Indian Express: "We experienced the LA riots first-hand. I remember the National Guard patrolling the roads of LA, setting up posts across the street.

"This wasn't science fiction - this was pure struggle. But these are the experiences that create science fiction, because we were struggling, we were fighting the establishment, the machine."