Desi Train

And here’s the concluding part of Kartik Krishnan’s coverage of the Screenwriters’ Conference in Pune, organized by the Film and Television Institue of India (FTII). While the first part was heavily loaded with insights, knowledge, highly straightforward opinions and views - the second part doesn’t let go of the tight grip over you… Kartik begins Day 2 of the the Conference by attending a speech by Sriram Raghavan (Ek Hasina Thi). Over to Kartik…

DAY 2: AUGUST 20 2006, FTII PUNE

SESSION 6 - INSPIRING EXAMPLES

Had come in a little late but nevertheless was in time for Sriram Raghavan’s speech

Sriram Raghavan (Ek Hasina Thi)

• A good film can have 60 terrific 2 minute scenes or 4 good long scenes

• Deewar had 95 scenes. Even small character like Parveen Babi, though has 7 scenes, still has impact.

• Deewar was written in 18 days. So writers need not feel hopelessly helpless.

• My favorite scene in Deewar- Shashi Kapoor - AK Hangal scene; Amitabh Bachchan in the Lift Scene : “Suna hai lift ki deewaron key kaan nahi hotey”

• Sholay had 62 scenes developed from a 4 line idea. The process was amazing

• 2 things where I would’ve got stuck while writing Sholay : -

- How to show Sanjeev Kumar not having hands without audience predicting it all the way till the interval. Solution: – Blanket, so that viewer is stunned when the blanket flies off in holi sequence.

- After Hema Malini’s dance when AB comes and rescues Hema and Dharamendra, why don’t they take Gabbar along them with them???? Guess it is Emotional Logic versus Logic. Viewer’s first emotional logic would be to get away from gabber, not kidnap him!!!

• Salim Javed’s inspirations came in 7 Samurai, Once upon a time in Mexico, Wild Bunch and such ‘Westerns’

• Salim Javed never forgot the viewer. They put themselves in viewer’s shoes when they wrote.

• They used economy of space time and dialogue

• Of 20 films they wrote 18 WERE HITS/RECOVERED MONEY!!!

Javed Sahib said: U just can’t fool people in story, poem or films

Naadi (A female writer, Have no idea what’s her background ) :

She was talking mainly about women in Vijay Tendulkar’s films. I haven’t seen all of them. The films she mentioned were:

- Aakrosh (Reema lagoo as dancer to future would be rapists)

- Smita patil (aggressive lovemaking scene and she enjoying going to the zamindars – not knowing that they will eventually rape her)

- Nishaant
- Aaghat
- Bindu

And a couple of Marathi screenplays of Vijay tendulkar. I had no idea about most of them. Must get round to seeing Vijay tendulkar’s work soon!!!

Kamlesh Pandey (Tezab, Saudagar, Rang De Basanti and many films) :

• I came into films accidentally. I used a table kept on the ground to write my scripts. People asked me “Why ???” I replied when Salim – Javed separated, the ‘-‘ in-between (Salim-Javed) fell and I found it. It is on the blank hyphen “-” that I write my scripts

• Best compliment I received – Javed sahib said “Merey pet pey laat mat maaro”

• When Tezaab was shown, nobody understood its use of flashbacks. We re-edited the film but decided to go ahead with the original format, wondering whether the audience would get it or not ??? The audience did, and it became a big hit !!!

• Script is not literature. (Good dialogue helps nevertheless). Our job is like carpenter, to carve a sofa, a chair, or a singhasan.

• We are technicians first, writers later. We are ourselves to be blamed if we take ourselves too seriously

• I’ve seen writers who never write, they perform/narrate the scenes excellently to the producers. They are better than some of the actors.

• Most industry people don’t read. They show but they don’t read even bound scripts. Actors don’t worry about the script. They worry more about ‘mera scene’

• Saudagar – famous Dilip Kumar drinking scene (when he goes drunk by river bed and starts chiding Raaj Kumar). DK avoided that scene for 3 days giving one excuse or the other. He had his own version of doing that scene. “How can I go upto Dilip Kumar and tell him – That is wrong, don’t do the scene that way. Do it this way “ I asked Subhash Ghai. Ghai said “U are not a fan. U are a professional colleague.”

• Don’t be in awe of the star/actor/director u are working with. Don’t work with fans. Many writers/actors died due to working with fans.

• When an actor starts out, the script is his parent, when the actor is successful, the script is his friend. Then actor and script often rescue each other; but the day the actor thinks he is bigger than the script, he goes astray.

• Don’t deprive yourself of reading/writing any kind of films. You should be able to write any kind of films.

• Pandit Mukharam Sharma wrote very good films. Watch them!!!

• React to a scene. You can give bull shit but you should know how to sell the idea. Remember the audience is watching. You can go ahead of them and they will accept you for surprising them!!!

• 2nd best compliment I ever received– at a graduate’s convocation, 200 graduates thanked me for writing Rang De Basanti.

• Ending of RDB???? (Most asked question) I reply : -

- Gandhi had his own way to fight the British and Bhagat singh had his own way
- Ending was there in the beginning. What if the revolutionaries were born today????
- I’m not offering a solution (leave it to politicians/social workers).
- A story demands its ending and the ending justifies the story.

• Inspired by RDB
- Jessica lal case reopens
- Medical HRD minister issue (no clue what he said here)
- 7 IIT Students tear up their passports saying – We’re gonna work here

How Salim-Javed got Deewar made :

They went to Yash chopra (when he was making romantic films) and gave him a hard bound script and narrated the story to him. Before the narration, Yash chopra was about to drink tea, he didn’t drink tea for the 1-1/2 hour narration, so spellbound was he. Salim Jaaved had 3 conditions

I. Yash chopra will not change a single line in the script
II. Salim Jaaved will charge 1 lakh rupees more than the hero
III. There will be no songs in the film (however this had to be avoided at the last minute)

Subhash Ghai

Meri Jung was written by Javed sahib. He came upto me and said, I have a great script and showed me 2 pages with 37 one line scenes to me. He said “I believe in this script.” The script wasn’t given to me during pre production but I got scene by scene written on the sets by Javed sahib. During editing, it came off really well.

Good script always comes out through passion, belief and reaction to the script.

Every writer has his own power/belief.

15 minute Tea/Coffee Break:

Met Balu mahendru (Sadma guy). His only other film I’ve seen is sati leelavati (later remade atrociously by David Dhawan as Biwi No 1). Told him I loved both these films. He thanked me and said that Sati leelavati is his favorite film and whenever he gets depressed, he watches that film (Kamal Hassan is at his comic best in that film). He said he’s starting his next film in October.

Met Anurag Kashyap: I told him I was there at the biascope event when Gulal was being screened. Asked him when Gulal is releasing. He said January.

I asked him about Desi Train. He reads Desi Train everyday and is an avid blogger. Even the night before, he was doing that!!!! He also read my article on Guru Dutt and Mani Rathnam!!!

He said he consciously wants to work with directors who know better than him and that’s why he chases Ramu, Maniratnam. If Director doesn’t have a vision, there’s no point/fun working with him.

Being a writer-director is fun too!! “You get your vision on screen” Anurag said. I asked him if I can have his blog…. He declined politely…. Grrrrrrrr ….if only …..chalo koi baat nahi. The fact that I expressed my admiration for fighting (I haven’t seen a single film of his till date) the system and he shared 2 mins of conversation with me is good enough. Comeon guys, this guy wrote for Ramu and is writing for Mani Ratnam!!!!

SESSION 7 - LEARNING THE CRAFT

K Hariharan : (who is he???)

• Script is an area of enormous struggle

• Some writers say –Script isn’t on paper, its in mind. Its only one day before the shooting that script is given!!!

• Honestly, to shoot a film, u needn’t have a script. Just go to the location, shoot and edit later!!! But that’s not how it should be done.

• Script should be given to every team member. Everyone from the crew should know it, so that he can contribute to it.

• This is not just directors film but also sound recordist’s film

• Try Synch sound as much as possible. Minimize post production as much as possible

• Film should be made on the location

Indranil Chakraborty (FTII Faculty)

• There is a plethora of books for Hollywood Cinema but not for Indian Cinema. Hollywood Cinema is structurised and codified. We’ve used borrowed parameters to judge ourselves.

• There they go by Syd Field, Robert Mckies’ Story (people who write screenwriting books)

• There are no such books for European/Latin American cinema. Why should there be one for us???

• Just keep in mind the Aristotelian way (as per Aristotle). Syd field has hollywoodised Aristotelian story telling.

• Writing cannot be learnt. But craft can be learnt. Write intuitively but know the principles.

• Syd Field himself is one horrendous/disastrous screenwriter.

• Indian cinema is hybrid mixture of melodrama, mythology, realism. There is no such combination in the west.

• Ray is more western/hollywoodised since he is minimalist. Ghatak is more ‘indianised’ since he uses excess (have no idea what indranil meant here)

• Write – Edit - Rewrite … There average film script goes through 12 drafts of rewriting.

• Learn the film trade, not the tricks of the trade

Anurag Kashyap

• Script Writing isn’t always mathematics. Syd Field has taken away the soul of cinema. I don’t subscribe to his books. Only Jerry Bruckheimer has benefited a lot from him.

• Don’t be conditioned to think one way only. Not necessary that every cinema be mainstream cinema.

• I learnt everything from Comic books (Indrajal comics, Fauladi Singh etc). Sin city (the graphic novel)

• I come from a small town where a film called nadiya key paar was screened in the only hall for 2 years. I ran away to Bombay and used to go to Lotus (Bookshop I guess) and would read screenplays there.

• I read ‘Postman rings twice’ by James and saw all 4 four film adaptations of it. And then I wrote a version myself

• Give a student the access to everything – books, novels, comic books, films

• Library is more important than a teacher. I thrived on Virgin Comics, Batman comics. Batman comic books taught me lighting!!!

• We’re going back to film schools but not going forward.

• Don’t be afraid to question things. Bring them out

• Laziness – ‘The only way to write is to write’ I have that scribbled on my study

• Two days after shooting the script that I wrote for Satya, it was thrown in the dustbin

• Don’t ignore pen for camera. Don’t just fall in love with camera.

• I never went to a film school, I went to Satya (apparently he was also involved in the sound designing, editing and everything associated with films)

• Remember, most of what you write will be thrown away.

• How I write for Mani Ratnam??? I write, he sends me the modifications, then I rewrite, then he again sends me the modification… this process goes on till he freezes the scene!!!

Anjum Rajabali (FTII Faculty and also wrote Ghulam, Drohkaal, Legend of bhagat singh, Pukar)

He said a couple of good books
- Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Eigre
- Hero with a 1000 faces
- Aristotelian story telling

Open Q& A Forum:

Jaideep Sahni:

• Examine carefully what the director is cutting and what he is keeping

• Learn as much from other departments, actors, directors, sound, lights. Cautiously get into others’ departments but don’t step into their shoes. Just learn from them !!

• While shooting Pyaar tuney kya kiya – I told Urmila in a scene, CRY. She said “How do I cry? “ I said what do u mean how do I cry ??? Just cry. She said “Show me how do I cry” I said why is that ??? She said ” Jaideep, I’ve been acting for ages, I know how to cry, but unless u tell me specifically how to cry…I may get away, but you will never learn”

• Jungle – I told Vijay raaz to look reptilian in a scene when he is captured by sunil shetty. He understood and he was looking REPTILIAN in that scene. I asked him how did u do it??? He said “Whatever you think inside, comes on your face”

• Company – Minister is upto something.. Mohanlal was told to show this via expression. Not via dialogue otherwise it would’ve looked like –A for Apple B for Bat etc …it would’ve looked kiddish

• Bunty Aur Bubbly : I told rani in a scene when she was supposed to cry, to cry loud, but not to loose emotional connection over it. She was to look cute, loud, funny yet audience was to empathize with her. ½ funny scene, ½ sad scene. She did it well. A writer therefore needs to know about acting department as well.

• World of science has ignored Art, world of Art has ignored Science. There should be a convergence of both.

Abbas Tyrewala : Be aware of the difference between breaking rules when u are doing it for a good reason yet knowing the rules; and breaking rules just out of sheer laziness or complete disregard to learn

Javed Akhtar : We’re afraid of being over taught. (then Javed sahib had this amazing philosophy which went like this) :

• All art is an exercise in Schizophrenia. Balance between self forgetfulness and awareness (person 1). Balance between intricacy and simplicity(person 2)

• Person 1 is tooooo involved into character, person 2 is a ruthless cunning advisor. Have a balance between these two people within you

• When we’re over taught, content becomes cold blooded. When we’re under taught, we don’t know the craft enough.

• Have a balance of passion and craft. Don’t depend too much on either. When craft dominates, passion goes astray … and vice versa

SESSION 8 - SCRIPTS FOR THE GLOBAL MARKET:

Shekhar Kapoor :

• Even Hollywood has run out of ideas. They are remaking Japanese, Korean films when they are not doing sequels.

• Space Odyssey 2001 is straight out of Vedas!!! Why can’t u make such an idea in India??? Because we don’t get financing for great ideas

• Elizabeth everyone knew more about Elizabeth than me. One day I went to the sets and said the three most important words for any artist – “I DON’T KNOW”. Go on saying these words and you will be learning all your life.

• “Hum log bhi haanth paanv maartey rahtey hain, jinka lag jaata hai woh speakers/ chairperson banker stage par aatey hain, aur jinka nahi lagta, woh audience mein baithey hotey hain “ (Original line was a much more rustic, Punjabi-ish, crudish)

• When I was making Masoom, people said “Yeh film kaisey chalegi ???”

• Bandit queen – people said “Are you crazy??” Even Naseeruddin Shah rejected a role in that film.

• Even Elizabeth was rejected by a studio

• After 1/3rd of shooting of Mr. India, Mogambo was born.

• There are no rules in a good film, they only exist in a bad film

• THREE INGREDIENTS – CRAFT , PASSION, and HUNGER

Sooni Taraporewaala : (Salaam Bombay, Namesake)

• Local cinema (Iran, China, Brazil, Hong kong) is global

• We need to be ourselves, we can be particular and specific

• A novel is like milk. A film adaptation of the novel would be the mewa - condensed form of milk with its fragrance and taste

• People like (Martin Scorcese – Taxidriver, George Lucas – American Graffitti, Cupola – Godfather) went into the system with a script/structure and made commercial films

• ‘Global’ doesn’t mean American

• American’s have no sense of myth. They don’t have a sense of myth in birth, love, death, marriage etc unlike Indians

• Passion and perseverance

SESSION 9 - OPEN HOUSE DISCUSSION ON STEPS WRITERS MUST TAKE

This section didn’t interest me much, since they were talking about what is to be done with Writers Associations, IPR, Legal contracts. Still there were some good topics that came up.

1. If movies are specific they will be accepted globally :
Shyam Benegal - Of course, are you gonna sell a crossover film to America??? Cross Over film is a hoax. Why would they look at Hero when they have a Tarantino????

2. Listen to the story. It will guide as to what language you have to use

3. Story is an excuse to put your soul on celluloid. Any art form must be organic. Everything is functional. Nothing is superfluous. Very soon films would become personal cinema.

4. Javed sahib said as usual – Don’t just blame the writers, blame the society, blame the audience, blame the producers. We all are to be blamed for the cinema that exists today.

5. ART,CRAFT,COMMERCE AND SCIENCE – MAKE CINEMA

6. Engage the audience, you will find takers!!!

That’s all from me…. Wrote lots and probably summarized it all!!! Phew ….It was a wonderful experience for me. Not just did I get to see so many industry people live, but I also got to know what actually goes behind the camera. Learn a lot about writing in these two days.

Once again I reiterate, the intention is not to reveal industry secrets/how the industry functions; but more so that those who were not able to catch the event live, could learn from the experiences of these people, whom we respect and whose work we’ll always attempt to be ‘inspired’ from and not ‘remade’.

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And that folks is the end of the mesmerizing journey Kartik Krishnan took all of us in this hidden from all screenwriters’ world.

Thank You Kartik for this precious gift for Desi Train’s readers.

And a big thank you to FTII for making this happen - The first ever Screenwriters’ Conference in India. An amazing beginning of a journey… that one hopes will never end.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 8:19 am and is filed under Bollywood, Superhit Posts.
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