The writing on the wall

With Bollywood increasingly making films on offbeat subjects, there are plenty of opportunities for scriptwriters willing to break the mould.

Writer Timeri N Murari, in one of his articles, "Writing for Bollywood", narrates an interesting episode. Murari's novel, Taj "" a Story of Mughal India, caught director-producer Sanjay Khan's fancy and he invited Murari to discuss with him a TV serial along the lines of the novel.

Three months later, when Murari was ready with the first draft, Khan called to say that the project was stalled as his brother (Akbar Khan) planned to make a film similar to the novel. The TV series was never made and his brother's film flopped at the box office.

Taj has been picked up by a Canadian/Egyptian film production company. "At least the novel is still all my own work," he says in the article.

Murari's experience in the industry may just be a stray episode for many of us, but for those like Kamlesh Pandey, one of the most well-known writers in the industry, it's a familiar story. Pandey, who is currently scripting Virrudh on Sony Television for Smriti Irani's production house, was also behind the story of Rang De Basanti.

Having scripted blockbuster films like Tezaab, Saudagar and Beta, Pandey has now worked on Dilli 6 (Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's forthcoming venture).

"Dilli 6 was written before Rang De Basanti and was complete four years ago," he says. The veteran is now in the process of writing three films for Ravi Chopra, and one for Subhash Ghai. Pandey, unlike many young scriptwriters, is somewhat critical of the new breed of this growing tribe of writers.

"I appreciate the excitement in the industry and get at least 30 calls from new script writers everyday. But sometimes, when I meet these young writers, I find them extremely self-indulgent." Pandey's vote for promising young writers goes to Jaideep Sahni, Abbas Tyrewalla and writer-director Anurag Kashyap.

Sahni, who triples as writer, lyricist and creative producer, has been behind some of the best stories that the industry has seen recently, including Jungle, Company, Khosla Ka Ghosla and Bunty aur Babli. His forthcoming work includes Yash Raj Films' Aaja Nachle and Chak de India. Sahni still remembers people looking at him goggle-eyed when he wrote scripts on his laptop.

"Everyone works on a laptop today, everyone has smartened up to newer stories," he says. "Today's audiences are relating well to a new breed of writers who are writing realistic stories."

Adman Rensil D'Silva kind of agrees. For someone who works from 11 pm to 3 am on feature film scripts, while finishing his ad-related projects in the morning, D'Silva's forthcoming work includes Mani Ratnam's film Lajjo starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor, and actor Saif Ali Khan's home production too.

"Having written the story of Aks, which flopped in 2000, I think it could've fared better with audiences today," he says.

This change could stem from the fact that most writers have made a conscious choice to pursue writing as opposed to other lucrative careers that came their way. Take Anand. He has, so far, been behind films like Nazar (which flopped) and the hit film Kalyug.

He now awaits the audience reaction to his next comic caper, Buddha Mil Gaya, starring Paresh Rawal, Anupam Kher, Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak, besides controversial starlet Rakhi Sawant. In a month he should be ready with a script for his directorial venture, tentatively titled Aasman se Tapke. A qualified engineer from IIT Mumbai, Anand, who entered the industry nearly four years ago, feels that scriptwriters are invariably the ignored lot.

"Check out any movie posters, it's a rarity to see credits for writers," he says. Murari adds: "Twice I've signed contracts with Bollywood producers written on very pretty stamp paper which turns out to be as worthless as toilet paper as they renege on the contract after you've delivered a first draft."

That brings the issue of money in the business. "Television is where writers make regular money, as opposed to films, where money comes in installments," says Pandey. Though he doesn't confirm it, the story goes that Pandey was paid Rs 7.5 lakh for Rang De Basanti over a period of five years.

"I can't comment on such stories, but yes, I'd advice the younger lot of writers to keep another profession handy," he says. Writers in the television industry can earn anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1 lakh per episode. Films, on the other hand, can fetch writers Rs 15-20 lakh, usually paid in installments.

Niranjan Iyengar doesn't mind working only for films and feels there's enough money in the profession. He dropped his plans to study nuclear sciences in the US, much to his parents' dismay, and took up a job with a film magazine instead.

A few years later, he began assisting designer Manish Malhotra after which he co-wrote some dialogues for films like Kabhi Khushi, Kabhie Gham. His turning point was Kal Ho Na Ho, in which he wrote full-fledged dialogues for Karan Johar.

"Cinema had a different language earlier. In Kal Ho Na Ho, the dialogues stood out because the language was realistic and effortlessly conversational in tone," he says. Having worked with Pooja Bhatt, Arjun Rampal and Johar in the dialogue and screenplay department, Iyengar is now doing scripts for UTV.

Suresh Nair, for instance, attempted a change in cinematic language with Jhankaar Beats, produced under the Pritish Nandy Communications banner, for which he had co-written the dialogues. A journalist with a national daily, Nair's recent work, Namastey London, has done phenomenal business, while Shootout at Lokhandwala has received critical appreciation as well.

"Now I realise that it's so easy to trash films, while it's so difficult to execute them," he laughs, talking about his other work, Salaam-e-Ishq, which he co-wrote with Nikhil Advani over a period of a year.

"With novel ideas and scripts, writing in Bollywood is emerging to create interesting cinema," says Vikram Motwani, who has assisted directors like Deepa Mehta, and has written the script for UTV's Goal. It's time for audiences to applaud writers who are responsible for breaking the mould.