Desi Train

The Film and Television Institute of India arranged a Screenwriters Conference in Pune. The first ever. Everyone who was anyone in Bollywood’s criminally ignored screenwriting world was present and given a platform to speak.

Kartik Krishnan, Desi Train’s eyes and ears on Bollywood’s ground zero, was present at the two day conference held on August 19th and 20th.

After much pushing (from my end… damn me can be so pushy), Kartik agreed and delivered the article which goes into the minutest details of the two day event.

I’m so blown away by the coverage of Kartik’s article that I’m giving it the status of a Superhit Post even before it is published. From the always straight forward Anurag Kashyap’s insights to Abbas Tyrewalla’s views to Sriram Raghavan to Kundan Shah to Sudhir Mishra to Vishal Bhardwaj (and the incidents at the conference that pissed him off). WOW WOW WOW!!! This post may soon become the most viewed on Desi Train.

Hats off to Kartik and his hard work in emailing me the article in no time. Over to him…

WHAT IS WRONG WITH INDIAN SCRIPTWRITING!
FIRST ALL-INDIA SCREENWRITERS’ CONFERENCE

Film & Television Institute of India, Pune
August 19 & 20, 2006

This post would be a little longer than the usual I write for OZ. This is a pseudo journalistic (whatever that means) coverage of the above event. The intention is not to provide voyeuristic /insider information of the screenwriters to the rest of the world, instead it is to share the experiences of the established screenwriters with cinematic fanatics (like me and Oz) and many others who read the DT.

The speakers/panelists of the conference were the following:

Anurag Kashyap, Madhur bhandarkar, Sudhir Mishra, Javed Akhtar, Vinay Shukla, Balu Mahendru, Jahnu Barua, Abbas Tyrewala, Jaideep Sahni, Govind Nihlani, Paromita Vohra, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Vishaal Bhardwaaj, Sriram raghavan, Shyaam benegal, Kamlesh Pandey, Subhash Ghai, Sooni Taporewaala,Shekhar kapoor and FTII Faculty- Anjum Rajabali, Indranil Chakravarty, Ananth Murthy

There were 270 odd participants from all parts of country, some professionals, some other industry people, some amateurs like me .

Here it comes .. (Please note that the at times the article doesn’t exactly follow the rules of grammar and fluent writing coz there’s tooooooo much to write). Also I might’ve as usual missed out some points which I didn’t consider important enough.

DAY 1: AUGUST 19 2006, FTII PUNE

Key note speech by Anjum Rajabali (FTII Faculty):

He started off welcoming everyone said the following points
¢ All good writing is intuitive. There is no chalked out long drawn plan.
¢ For too long it has been a neglected department of films, despite Indian civilization of story telling
¢ Sadly, Scripts have become enslaved to films, productions, stars

By Ananth Murthy (FTTI Faculty):
¢ I write for myself. If I were to force myself to write a screenplay I might not be able to write so well
¢ Pather Panchali as a novel was richer than the film, but the film made it possible for me to see how rich the novel was
¢ Women writers in India haven’t seen Iranian films but they are doing what the Iranian films are in their films
¢ Novels, Stories, Poems don’t think of the audience but of what the author wants to say. Not what is acceptablebut what the author wants to say

15 minute Tea/Coffee Break:

Heard Anurag Kashyap saying to someoneWhatever happened is happened. (About Paanch and Black Friday). I’m focusing on future

Met Kundan Shah. Told himJaane Bhi Do Yaaron was India’s first Black comedy, and it was mind blowing. He saidI’m trying to make a film like that

Met Abbas Tyrewala. And told him that his dialogues were amazing in Maqbool. He saidthey should be because they were written by Vishaal bhardwaj, and I only wrote the screenplay I HAD MY FUCKING FOOT IN MY MOUTH. I mumbled something and ran away

Saw Amol Palekar, Nandita Das as well.

SESSION 1 - CURRENT SCENARIO:

Sudhir Mishra:

He started off with saying that it was an honor for him to be on stage with Kundan shah, with whom he started off his career in JBDY with (the protagonists name is Sudhir and vinod named after Sudhir mishra and Vidhu Vinod Chopra).
Bertollici said that afilm maker is a person who can get money to make a film

Cinema is becoming corporative, like a retail shop from where u can go and buy sarees.

The late Renu Saluja saidEditing is the last rewrite of the film
Different people write a film
Film is written on paper by writer.
Director writes in casting actors
Art Director writes in location
Cameraman writes in capturing the actors
Editor writes in editing the film and bridges the gap between what the intention of the script initially was, and what the film is eventually shot as

JBDY was originally 3 hours long but had to be curtailed to 2 hours 20 mins due to MORE EXCISE DUTY.

Initially there were 5 territories Bengal, North, Bombay (etc) and the film makers like Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, and Raj kapoor knew which concept will be accepted in which territory.

There should be more tolerance by audience. I may not be able to connect to MF Hussain, but he should be allowed to make his films.

National Award was given to Page 3 since it is the first screenplay to deal with so many characters and convincingly deal with them, and complete them

On originality: Mahesh Bhatt saysThere’s nothing original. I saidArth is original

Anurag Kashyap:

(told at the start that he will be taking names)

I was talking to an ex-FTII actress student Megha about what is the current scenario in Hindi cinema??? She said there is no current scenario in Hindi cinema. Hindi Cinema has everything for everyone and yet nothing for no one (read writer). Country is celebrating KANK sayingKaran johar mature ho gaya Do we not have anything else to celebrate?????

4 years ago I wrote for YashRajFilms for Shaad Ali 4 drafts of a script. That film got postponed and I was given a cheque of 50,000 rupees (I kept quiet). Then Shaad gave the script to someone else to rewrite itby locating it from Delhi to London (the setting). Shaad asked me will u rewrite it????
How do u point fingers at Yash raj Films????

On RGV: Sriram Raghavan wroteAb Tak 56’s original script but it was shelved by Ramu and Sri was told to work on ek haseena thi. Someone rewrote it and the script was given to Shimmit Ammin to direct it.

You have to let go of your credit since u are a newcomer
But then why do people get away with this treatment???
In India IPR doesn’t exist, Writers guild is non functional. Writers don’t come together and fight.

Disillusioned, I had to give up fighting and started writing dialogues for others with the excuse that I’m writing for money. I did mixed doubles for 20,000 rupees. (I’m sorry Anurag I had to bring this plight to the people)

These days Producers/directors have a vision (DVD). I have written 20 scripts that can be produced but no one will produce them. I’ve stopped taking insults flung at me.

On Madhur Bhandarkar: I may not like his scripts, but the man has b***s to make what he wants. He has the scripts in his mind.

If madhur can do it from a cycle and a video library shop with no formal education, and no degree from FTII, then anyone can. He got money to make Satta and it flopped. He made Page 3 in lesser money and it was a hit. He fights within the system and makes films.

Why do we write English scripts, when the western market can’t understand Indian accented English???

These days films are controlled by people in JUHU (a suburb in Mumbai). And beyond juhu they can think of is Manhattan.

One star (Hrithik Roshan) saw Black Friday and loved it, saying he wanted to work with me. I narrated a script to him and he saidIt would be nice if the character was a bit like Starsky and Hutch. I askedWhat did u like in my script then????

Krishh was sent to me for writing initially, where it was Spiderman scene by scene.

I wrote for Water, fought for it, worked on it, but was credited asTranslation of Hindi dialogues

What do u do then??? Do u walk out ??? Coz if u do, then whole Juhu closes on you. We’ve to make these choices.

Producers only take gambles during Diwali, but they don’t take gambles with subjects/scripts. Cinema is now catering to popcorn and the writer is rewriting the recipe. There is not single multiplex/hall for experimental films.

90 % of films bollywood makes are DVD remakes. The first original film someone makes, bollywood picks hair on it. We celebrate DVD Remakes.

Kundan Shah:

I was thrown out of my house by my wife and was in Sudhir mishra’s place, when we wrote JBDY. Today u cannot spoof the reality of today coz it is already a spoof.

Writers like Manto, Premchand came and fled back after seeing their written films on screen (they were so bad). But sadly, it is a market place.

Raj kapoor was a fan of Nukkad (aziz mirza, myself, saeed mirza). He called us to make a film with usbut saidRemember, jahaan sey mujhey paisey milengey , mujhey unki baraat mein naachna padta hai

I directed a film called 3 sisters (who commit suicide not to overburden their parents with dowry) on a budget of 52 lakhs. Producer Ramesh taurani saw it and saidI love your film but I cant distribute it !!! 

Producers wantS a star to be put in such films, but the moment u do that, the film is gone. The idea is gone.

As a writer u can
- make your own ground and stick to it OR
- compromise OR
- stand aside and perish

80% films written these days are flops as very few writers are talented. Some are goodbut most are mediocre.

Remember - Nobody will fight for u, u have to fight for yourself!!!

No art survives without Patronization. No temple in India was made without support from the kings. NFDC should realize it.

Madhur Bhandarkar:

I was a Video cassette library guy. Library started deteriorating and hence came to cinema. I was rejected by FTII since I wasn’t a graduate. Now I’m a panelist today (unanimous applause came from the audience).

On Trishakti: My first and hard core commercial film with stars (Arshad warsi) coz my original story was rejected (kahaani bahut shyaam benegal-govind nihlani type hai). Therefore Trishakti had a helicopter, bikini, a dog (aka Hum aapke hain kaun), ghayal type action, rangeela type glamour, hum aapke hain kaun type family drama and even altaaf raja. Everything commercial but the film flopped.

I decided to stick to my guns this time. I’m happy that trishakti flopped otherwise I wouldn’t have made chandni bar. R Mohan (producer) and Tabu believed in me. I’m thankful to them.

These days the DVD Library waala knows more as to who is remaking which filmso that he suggestsYeh film mat dekho, who dekho. Usko falaan falaan director banaa raha hai

U can adapt/remake films but there should be some originality in it.
A producer after seeing the play Othello saidYeh Shakespeare ko bulao 4 bungalows (a lane in Mumbai) aur ussey Othello key rights khareed lo jaldi

U can make good films but u can’t make hit films.

At least appreciate me for different cinema, for my next film Traffic Signal I’ve casted eunuch, beggars, newcomers. Writers should be given a chance to come with innovative cinema.

Open Q& A Forum:

Javed sahib commented : Script writers should be competent in grammar. Nobody gets anything on platter. Even a producer came from scratch. When we (Salim - Javed) came even our scripts were rejected by stars (Rajesh Khanna). Don’t complain; try to make a better job.

My take: Most of the questions asked at this point of time were stupid..funny why cant people keep their mouth shut instead!!!

SESSION 2 - EXPLORING INDIA’S NARRATIVE TRADITIONS:

Javed Akhtar:

In India, story telling has been an art in itself. There were professional story tellers since time immemorial.

Anecdote- Nawab of awadh was being told a story by his storyteller. The story reached a point when the army was waiting for the king to arrive and fight. But the story teller had to go to Mecca for haj. He assigned his shagird to continue with the story and narrate it meanwhile every night to nawab for the 3 months duration.

When he came back and asked the nawabhow is my shagird??? Nawab saidhe’s great. Then he asked the shagirdWhere have u reached in narrating the story to the nawab in my 3 MONTHS ABSENCE???. Shagird saidMaster how can I continue the story in your absence??? The story is at the same point the army is still waiting for the king!!!!

He then said this
In the 40’s - villan would be Zamindar
In the 50’s - villan would be Capitalist
In the 60’s - villan would be Urbane gangster
In the 70’s - villan would be hero himself
In the 80’s - villan would be Politician/Police

Earlier the protagonist was from working class.Now the protagonist isn’t working. Truth is inconvenient for the audience, it spoils audience’s mood. That’s why the heroes stay in palatial houses and dance in Manhattan.

Insolence isn’t in film making, it is in society .
Earlier Society accepted Do Bigha Zameen. Now the priorities of society are going away. Cinema is a part of the society, Film industry is a part of the society.

There are no collective dreams in films these days, there is no ˜WE’ there is only ˜I’

Cinema is shying away from story telling / current reality because audience doesn’t want reality too, and that’s why these films become hit.

We’re hiding behind underworld for stories since underworld has its sense of morality very clear. We’ve to find ˜We’ then we’ll find ˜folk’, ˜folklore’.

Meenakshi Mukherjee: (I don’t know who she is??)

India has heer ranjha (made as QSQT, Barsaat, Ek Duje Key Liye)
India has Historical fiction (made as Mughaleazam, Prithviraj sanyukta)
Film makers although haven’t used contemporary literature though. Film makers don’t read Hindi, Urdu, English, Malayalam, Bengali language literature.

Is Sarat Chandar the only writer in India???? He wrote the novel when he was 20 years old, and he himself regards Devdas as his most immature work. He didn’t want it published; it got published without his knowledge. There have been 10 Devdas in different languages.

Ramayana ideal.. a kavya. Good versus Evil, Black and white characterization. War brings end to evil

Mahabharata- Very grey realism.no black-white characters.. Unique individuals with flaws. War brings dissolution to victor and vanquished both. Transexuality..caste difference..Gender bias etc very real!!!

U.R. Ananthmurthy : (FTII Faculty)

¢ All earth is full of stories for people who can listen.
¢ A story can be retold, but a novel has to be read again. Film makers should know the difference.
¢ King who carries Betal has to be a good listener (Vikram-Betaal)
¢ Unless u have a personal urgency, u can’t make a good film
¢ If u listen only to the rich, u won’t have stories. Listen to the poor and u’ll never be out of stories.

Open Q& A Forum:

Javed Akhtar:

¢ Film needs a lot of money. Capital never comes without conviction.

¢ We can fight with every producer but we can’t fight audience.

¢ ˜Choli key peechey’ was only created by 12 people (lyricist, director, actress, music director etc) but an entire audience accepted. Who made it a hit song?

¢ Why does audience patronize only david dhawan and not Anurag kashyap or Prakash jha????

¢ Remember It is a mediocre film industry, mediocre film directors, mediocre film writers, and mediocre audience!!!

¢ There is no shortage of conflicts/stories, but the average cine-goer doesn’t want to see it. The producer is fine if his film doesn’t get seen in UP/Bihar (ticket price 15 rupees) coz NY is there (10$)

¢ The problem is that we are not willing to face problems. There is no dearth of villains, there is dearth of people who want to see villains

¢ Cinema woh hai jiska ticket black mein bikta hai

Lunch break

I realized that I learnt a lot in breaks than sitting in the auditorium. Cozthen I got to talk to people on a one on one level. I was lucky enough to stand in the lunch queue along with Javed Sahib. He is one hell of a charmer and he has an amazing sense of humor. While in the queue, fans like me had ˜gheraoed’ him and were asking questions. I asked him two questions and I felt my life’s purpose was achieved when he answered them .

I asked > How do u find balance between technical research in a subject and at the same time, writing simple enough for the averaged intelligent audience to understand??

Javed Sahib: Don’t care just do your research. I researched for lakshya for six months. I was sitting, eating, living, and interacting with army officers. Still I got no praise for it. No one except the army praised it ..

I asked> what literature should a writer read???

Javed Sahib: Anything and everything u can lay your hands on!!! Read as much good literature as bad, so that u can find out what is good in even bad literature.

I was satisfiedbut then Javed sahib joked to the organizers ˜Arrey bhai, mujhe koi senior citizen privilege milegi ya nahi ??? ˜

Why can’t organizers ensure stars like Jaaved Sahib don’t have to stand in a Queue for lunch???? (Me being selfish enough to pester him with my questions, realized it only later)

On a sidetrack, I met Sriram Raghavan in the restroom (would u believe it ???). Told him I loved Ek hasina Thi. He said he’s making another new thriller called Johnny Dead or Johnny Grandpa (I don’t remember which one he said)

SESSION 3 - THE HISTORY OF INDIAN SCRIPTWRITING:

Vinay Shukla (Godmother and the atrocious Koi mere dil se poochey) :

He listed an anthology/chronology of Hindi cinema which I found real boring Besides it was post lunch I suspect I might’ve dozed off.Noteworthy points

¢ Mughal-e-zam had brilliant dialogues

¢ Sahib biwi aur ghulam First film with no romantic relationship between hero (Guru Dutt) and lead heroine (Meena kumari)
¢ Ek hi raathsa, Saadhna, Dhool ka phool are good film scripts/story/screenplays

{ I chide Vinay shukla’s long speech about history of cinema because I don’t care about past, I can’t do anything about it.
I don’t care know future, and hence I can’t do anything about it.
The only thing I can do about is present. }

Balu Mahendru (Tamil film maker who has made several brilliant Tamil films and the unique Hindi film SADMA):

As a kid I saw films in which a character -
- saidI’m going 2 do it and
- saysI’m doing it and then finally
- saysI’ve done it

These were the unnecessary dialogues in many films (Tamil) I saw. It hasn’t changed much (Hilarious response from audience)

We used to go to international film festivals held in Chennai, where after seeing brilliant foreign cinema, all student/young film makers would assemble and the first one to raise his hand reserved the rights for the Tamil remake!!!! Now the film festival has changed to the DVD Library!!!

There was a Tamil film which I was directing starring kamal hassan in which he was an evil doctor (not Red rose). Kamal hassan had to enter the hospital in a scene to be shot (and he was going there for some evil purpose). When I yelled ˜ACTION’, Kamal did his walk and suddenly out of nowhere came a black cat into the frame crossing kamal’s path (it was not at all intended). The shot was kept since black cat symbolizes evil.

Years later, a Hindi remake (with Rajesh khanna) was being shot, where for the same shot, SOMEBODY WAS LITERALLY FORCING THE CAT TO CROSS THE FRAME IN AN EXACT SAME MANNER. These were what u call, very religious remakes!!!!

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Jahnu Barua (Award winning Assamese Director, Maine Gandhi ko nahi maara) :

Despite India’s strong story telling tradition, we’ve lost the strength to tell a story, because we’ve lost touch with reality and lost the habit of studying. Producers don’t like to read/research despite investing so much time, money, effort in subject.

India makes 800-900 films and still we’ve not learnt to respect behind the camera people, particularly the creative people. Writer is the first person to be contacted and the last person to be paid/not paid.

I’m lucky coz for all my Assamese films, I wrote my story, screenplay, dialogues, directed and edited them too! Because I couldn’t afford anyone. After Gandhi ko. many producers came to me for direction. No one had come before me making a Hindi film. I’ll narrate two such intolerable producers who approached me separately.

Producer # 1:Make anything.I’ve no problems. I just want a National Award
JB: I was livid!!!!

Producer #2 : I want to make a film with you and I have black money, so don’t worry. I thought Gandhi ko was a beautiful film and brilliant screenplay.
JB: I was overjoyed and thrilled to hear this.

Then surprise . Producer #2 takes out a DVD from his bag.
Producer#2 : Remake this film!!!
JB : Have u even seen the film ???
Producer #2: I haven’t but my wife has!!!

JB was flabbergasted and didn’t know. He was saying to himself: What harm have I done to deserve this??? I’ve made 10 assamese films, won National Awards, and no one came for remake and after my first Hindi film, I’m getting these DVD remake offers ???

Producer #2: I have a sore throat. Can I get some warm water???

JB went to the kitchen to boil waterwith the DVD in handwondering what to do???? I PUT THE DVD IN THE WATER AND GAVE THE WATER TO THE PRODUCER. It satisfied me Symbolically he got his job done. At least the DVD he brought was used for some purpose!!!!!

The sad part is: These days it is not about who can make the best film first, but who can make the copy first????

Open Q& A Forum:

Depicting Truth versus Cinematic reality

It depends on the kind of film you are making. It is the emotional reality/truth of the film. It’s your take. There cannot be and should be any rules.

What to pack when we decide to become a writer???

The only way to learn any art is by getting exposed to it. Have u ever read a book saying ˜How to write a book’??? The only way is to read maximum screenplays is to see maximum films.

Comment - Unsuccessful (or yet to achieve success) people are ill treated. Audience loves stars and hence producers will love stars. The day audience loves writers; audience will also start loving writers.

Javed akthar :

It was not given to us on a platter. We snatched it away. After 4 hit films even when we were not getting our due fame/respect, we called billboard painters, gave them money and told them to write ˜WRITTEN BY SALIM JAVED’ on every poster of the film, over the duppata of jaya bhadhuri, aside amitabh bachchan , over dharmendra. All over Mumbai, all the film boards/posters had our name forcibly written on them!!!

SESSION 4 - CONTEMPORARY ISSUES:

Abbas Tyrewala (SCREENPLAY MAQBOOL, dialogues Main Ho Na, Munnabhai, Asoka)

¢ Screenplay is the most effective way of telling a story. The story guides the screenplay; and therefore writer should always listen to the story.

¢ We need to have the discipline to stick to the brief and maintain economy of Time and Space (meaning, use less to establish more)

¢ I don’t think anyone owes the writers anything. The world doesn’t owe it to us. Audience has no responsibility to patronize great cinema. She is the best judge.

¢ Writers need to engage the audience in dramatic construct. Get them to invest emotions in the screenplay, make them ask questions and yet get them kicked about results. Give them answers without predictability/unbelievablity.

¢ Element of identifyablility should be there in the script so that it rings a universal chord with everyone in the audience. You may not have seen the characters but you should be able to identify with them

¢ Stick to your roots, your issues, your stories, your clothes, your language

¢ Writers do piles and piles of work. The work they churn out to the work which gets produced is 10:1

¢ Since time is less, we don’t do any research on the subjects. There are no rewrites. The purpose is to finish off the scripts

¢ Three types of writers writers at Heart, writers in transit (actors/directors who do it out of necessity), writers in defeat (who will write anything and everything the producer says(DVD Remakes)

¢ If scripts are cancelled/postponed writers don’t get any money

¢ Writers should learn the craft.

¢ Scriptwriting is occasionally Art, always Trash, never craft (intelligently manipulating the audience’s emotions)

¢ Don’t demand Respect/money, give results and deliver.

¢ Producer thinks- why should I pay 4 ideas of a guy sitting in a room and creatively jerking, when I can get DVD remakes. Producers jump onto bandwagon, sucking on stale blood but not pumping fresh blood

Abbas then suggested some guidelines to improve the scenario (which were to do with governing bodies, writers associations, contract, membership of Writers associations etc)

Jaideep Sahni (Company, Jungle, Bunty aur Bubli)

¢ There is no way to bypass the producers/directors/ star system etc. We’ve to work our way through these people. It is possible to work your way around them

¢ Learn the art and craft of even narrating the story to producers, stars to impress them

¢ Understand the market, learn about distributors, promotion of films

¢ Learn and relearn the craft since as communication increases, vocabulary decreases. Keep learning.

¢ I had no experience of underworld to write for Company. But I wrote from experiences of students’ union, Software engineering, Advertising

¢ Words are our weapons, we must own them!!!

¢ Empower craft, increase knowledge, become worldly wise and learn how to manage creativity via art and craft.

¢ Look inside yourself, connect, and take the efforts.

¢ Inspiration comes from personal experiences, experiences of others, and reading literature/newspaper. Don’t just sit in a JW Mariott (5 star hotel in Mumbai), stay in touch with everyone, small people, TV, country, streets.

¢ Anurag Kashyap is in touch with the streets that’s why his dialogue looks real (its just that he chose to stay in touch with the dark side of the streets)

Open Q& A Forum:

Javed Akhtar : (comment) : I think Hindi films have a bright future after seeing these two writers. A writer is like an architect who designs the building, skyscraper, hut, every type of building and a director is just an engineer who builds the building according to the architect’s plans. A good script with bad direction can look decent, but a bad script with brilliant direction will still look bad.

Sudir Mishra disagreed: Writer and director work together. Shooting is a rewrite of the film. He then said to jaideep I thought Bunty aur bubbly was a bad script !!!

Jaideep said: (to Sudhir) Sir I will forever respect your opinions, but the fact is that u never read my script, you only saw the film!!! Shaad Ali had to make certain modifications depending upon the locations, and yet he had the courtesy to call me from sets and take permission to change it.

Anurag: I agree with Jaideep. The script originally written by jaideep was far better than the film. But the film wasn’t good. And satya is one film in which the script wasn’t good but the film was brilliant (I thought Anurag was being modest here)

Abbas Tyrewala: Point out and realize your faults before others can. For a writer to be self critical, he should be constantly relearning, reading a lot, joining and doing lot of courses, and work a lot on individual self .

15 minute Tea/Coffee Break:

This was the best part. I caught up with Vishaal Bhardwaaj. Told him that I’ve seen Maqbool 10-15 times and saw Omkara thrice in the first week!!! I told him I’m such a big fan of him and his dialogues in both films. Maqbool is probably the best script/film I’ve seen in recent times (Guys No Maqbool is even better than RDB, Lagaan, DDLJ, perhaps at par with Satya, and even some of manirathnam’s films). Maqbool is probably one of my all time favorite films!!!

I told him Sir please continue making your kind of films without bothering about audience reaction, critics, or anyone!!! I think Maqbool and even Omkara are like onions. They’ve got layers and layers of meaning, subtext, and drama to them. Even after the 7′Th -8′th viewing u cannot completely grasp everything.

The little big man simply thanked me with a big smile. I was like WOW!!!

SESSION 5 - CINEMA AND LITERATURE

Adoor Gopalakrishnan (only film maker on the panel to have won a Dada sahib Phalke award and was rightfully given a center stage and standing ovation when he came. He’s a legendary Malayalam film maker by the way for those who don’t know):

I’m sorry I thought I came late due to my of late ill health, and the cab driver who drove me from Mumbai to Pune in a shack!!!

¢ These days, writers don’t have ambition let alone vision. The only aim is to please the producer.

¢ We’ve moved away from life. We’re not talking about real problems, real issues, and real lives. We’re simply creating fables.

¢ Why can’t we make films like Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Raj kapoor who took socially relevant subjects and made them in commercial format and yet immensely watch able????

¢ There is no romance in India, romance is only in Switzerland. We think we’re inferior.

¢ How many Swiss romantic songs have u seen in which the white man is looking quizzically/scornfully into the camera at the backdrop??? It’s a joke to them. What are we celebrating???? Are we going to analyze and study something???

¢ 90% of classic/landmark films have been written by the film maker himself.

¢ Screenplay is the director’s vision on paper. Screenplay is the most important document but it is not the final document

¢ These days producers think ˜The farther the film is from real life, the better the chances/prospect of its success

¢ Viewer is investing time and money in our films, we must respect that.

¢ Cinema always borrowed from literature in the past, but nowadays Cinema only tells lies.

My comment- Just listening to this man, even though I have not seen a single Malayalam in my entire life, I realize that this man is a seasoned director, and his experience is vast. I’m kicked about him now!!! Any keralites reading this article in Mumbai please get in touch with me!!! I want to see all his films right now

Paromita Vohra (Khamosh paani):
I don’t remember what she talked about. Except that she elaborated about the difference between reading a book and seeing a film. She also mentioned a book ˜Waiting for mahatma’ by RK Narayanan.

Vishaal Bhardwaaj (Makdee, Maqbool, Omkara, Blue umbrella):

¢ When you want to become a music director, you have to learn the notes, connotations, western music, and Indian classical music. Similar it is for a film

¢ In India every one knows how to bat better than Sachin Tendulkar, and everyone knows how to make a good/hit film

¢ Writing a script is a craft.

¢ The book - ˜Art of Dramatic Writing’ is Bible!!!

¢ I never liked Shakespeare in school, the pain of ˜Thee’, ˜Thou’ was too much for me!!!

¢ Then saw hindi film - Angoor (Gulzar) based on the play Comedy of Errors

¢ Anurag kashyap suggested me to see Akiro kurosawa’s Throne of blood. And I loved it

¢ I wanted to make a film on underworld, but wanted to go deeper into the psyche since all stories on underworld ended stupidly

¢ A good story badly shot, badly edited has chances. But a bad story brilliantly shot, brilliantly edited has no chances

¢ So I tried to take the essence of Macbeth and put it in underworld. I started writing it. The idea was to be true to the spirit of Macbeth

¢ I made Maqbool completely mine; the fragrance of originality was there in the film.

¢ I wanted to create unique and fantastic world even while doing a mundane scene. That’s why

Witches (Macbeth) = Cops (Maqbool)

Lady Macbeth = Became Mistress (extra guilt)

Gabbar singh /Iago = Stained teeth, foul language (Omkara)

Banquo’s ghost = Kaka’s dead body coming alive (Maqbool)

Forest (Macbeth) = Dariya (Maqbool)

Dagger hallucination (Macbeth) = Blood ˜Khoon saaf kyun nahi kiya ab tak’

Handkerchief = Qamarband (Omkara)

Open Q& A Forum:

Here it was the Omkara Vishaal Bhardwaaj bashing session. He got put off.

Sudhir Mishra Your film has a lot of coincidences. It has taken convenient co-incidences. There are Flaws in Omkara

Vishaal(retorted): If there are flaws in the film then they are in play as well !!!

Kundan Shah : Why can’t kareena tell konkona directly about the lost ˜qamarband’ directly ????

Vishaal: If you notice carefully, Saif prevents her from saying so by cutting her line!!!

Kundan Shah: Your script hasn’t stuck to Othello at all!!! (He was saying this as if Othello were not Shakespeare creation, but his!!!) . Why have you made modifications???

Vishal (put off/sarcastically): That’s why we’re here.to learn about script writing.

Javed Akhtar: Maqbool is a very good film because it is a good story. Macbeth Maqbool is done brilliantly. But in Omkara, Shakespeare has taken revenge on you, he fails you. If I come upto you and tell you a one line story of a man who out of jealousy and overcome with suspicion kills his wife, would you buy it??? This is the danger in adaptation!!! Omkara is a bad story, but has good dialogues and screenplay.

END OF DAY 1

My Blood was boiling. How dare they (front row people) grill a film maker who has gone beyond DVD remakes and went on to make award winning brilliant films (Maqbool-Pankaj kapoor, Omkara-If saif doesn’t win an award for thisthen he should return the award for Hum Tum) .

I actually wanted to meet VB (Vishaal Bhardwaaj) and take his autograph. Also wanted to talk about the Julius Caesar remake (rumors???) and Blue Umbrella. Thought I would do that after the session/day ended. But here’s what happened

VB comes out of the auditorium pissed and starts smoking. Couple of ftii students and myself were around him as if offering consolation/appreciation after the beating he had received in the hall 10 mins ago.

VB was using swearwords right out from Omkara, and saying KANK gets selected for Toronto Film festival. It’s a big tamasha - 3.5 hours ki jhel film. Omkara wasn’t selected. From now I’m not going to make films for Film festivals at all !!!”

Someone came upto VB for an interview/photo session etc but VB was pissed off Baad mein milo yaar, mera number vagairah ley lo, abhi mera mood theek nahi hai

VB said-Jaaved sahib could’ve called me up and said on phone if he had a problem with Omkara. But why choose to grill me in front of everyone ????

VB drove away in disgust

I’ve never felt more let down in life. A person like Jaaved sahib and the ˜esteemed front row’ Kundan shah, Sudhir Mishra and the so called ˜realistic film makers’ don’t accept a film like Omkara. Rather they talk from a purist’s point of view.

For all its flaws Omkara is probably the best Hindi film of the year!!! At a time when DVD remakes, sequels, and bullshit like Fanaa/KANK is getting produced, these ˜front row people’ don’t run them down; but they choose to target Omkara. Why??? Because it is a crime to touch Shakespeare and adapt it so well

I talked to my writer friend about this. She opined If u have made a film, stand by it no matter how much someone criticizes it.

Another friend of mine saidIn logon ko toh yehi laga ki, hum log itney saalon sey filmein bana rahein hain, aur ek music director turned film maker aata hai,, aur humsey badhiya filmein bana sakta hai ???

The criticism was personal, I guess not just for Mr VB, but also for me, who was arguing about this with a friend till late at night. Anyways tomorrow was to be a new day. ..

===============================================

And that dear readers ends Part 1 of this article. You can now breathe in, let your pumping heart slow down, relax the grip with which you are holding your mouse. Relax. Part 2 comes in tomorrow with more shake the ground under you coverage.

Tomorrow the screenwriting knowledge is imparted by some of the other greats not covered in Part 1 - which include Sriram Raghavan, Kamlesh Pandey (Yes!!! he was there!!!), Our favorite Anurag again (and about his blogs ;) ), Jaideep Sahni, Shekhar Kapoor, Sooni Taraporewala, and many many more…

Hats off to Kartik for such a detailed coverage. And yes above all please bow to FTII for making the impossible - possible. These are some of the most precious moments we live for… and these two days where the Gods of Bollywood Screenwriting met, surely is somewhere close to the top of those moments…

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 10:12 am
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