13-14 DECEMBER

“Has The ‘INDIAN SCRIPT’ arrived ?”

Lets talk a little bit about it. As first of all i feel fortunate to be there and being a part of an event which was not organized just for discussion and talking about problems, specifically and particularly it was aimed towards ‘ Finding Possible Solutions’ of the problems. And i think here it rarely happens when 500 people pay attention to one thing rather than other things.

As it was published and told that FWA was going to bring some kind of ‘MODEL CONTRACT’ for the benefit of writers,who come under the BPL area in terms of cinema. And most interesting thing it is just a beginning . And if this will be succeed then not only writing will get a security but also it will get a standard. Cause when you are liable of availing something good, you need to pay the price. And in terms of writing it is; you should be original,good and very of yourself. No place for the people who have no passion for writing except a desire to be known as a Writer.

Well personally i think i should not say it will be a ‘Benefit for writers’, that has a reason – writers are going to change, they may have number of names. Different locations and so on but writing will remain the same. A good writing is not a property of an individual. It could belong to anyone.

So according to me this MODEL CONTRACT is going to help INDIAN WRITING not the writers, they will get the benefits by default.

: FIRST DAY :

Session 1 : “VIJAY TENDULKAR : THE MAN , THE WRITER,

AND HIS WORK”

So first day includes a ‘ Tribute session to the great writer of Indian cinema and play world – Lt. VIJAY TENDULAKAR’. No doubt he is a man who wrote what he thought he should write. He never compromised with the quality of ‘writing’. And before claiming of being a writer ,one should go through his work.Before availing the facility of fancy word’ writer’, one should be clear that ‘has he at least 10 % of Tendulkar in his writing or not ? If not that means, he needs to move a little bit more, he needs to rethink about his thinking. I don’t say one needs to ‘write’ what he has written but yes one needs to be as ‘powerful ‘ as he was.One’s writing should leave an impact on the viewer.Thats all.

Dont look for Truffoart, Godarth, Bunuel or Tarrentrino to know the art of ‘writing’, it is here only.try and learn ‘craft’ of cinema from others but soul will come from Indian masters cause they have studied our culture. They have discovered the missing links of nations. They have suffered the ups and downs of living in Indian circumstances. How come a person living in America or France can feel the same thing? And if not then how can he would be able to tell you what to do with your writing, not at all.

Here please don’t say cinema is an universal medium and one can learn from any where. The thing is that it is ‘Cinema’ which is universal not the ‘Writing’. And it makes a big difference. Emotions are very of human beings. But what a writer dose when he weaves a story. He includes basic ingredients of the particular culture in his writing so that a person can easily relate himself with it. Do you think RAMAYAN or MAHABHARAT cud be more interesting if we change the location from INDIA to Luxembourg, or names from RAM/ KRISHNA to Josheph/ Peter.

Session 2 : ‘WHAT MAKES INDIAN SCRIPT UNIQUE ?’

Moderated by KAMAL HASAN and spokespersons were – Nasareen Munni Kabir,Vinay Shukla,Rakesh Om prakash Mehara and B.R. ISHARA.

Lets read again the highlighted question and give a pause, now think. is it our stories ? Dont give me a shit… we know from last one decade what is going on.. well recently we are improving but still it cant be a ‘UNIQUE FACTOR’. Then .. is it songs ? Hmm… well noone but we only use songs in our film. Although most of the time a song has nothing to do with the soul of ’script’ cause basically they are put there on the demand of producers not writers.in that case it is all clear , it could be a unique factor of Indian cinema but considering we are talking about script .. its definitely not.

Then what neither story nor song then what else one can do with ’script’? Structure .. OK lets have an overview of Indian films and other films whose structure carries more uniqueness. Our most of the films go in a straight line without even moving an inch from the path shown by last generations. While rest of the world has already searched number of ways to reach at the destination. So it could be a unique factor but not in terms of writing but for criticizing.

Hmm.. what else lets look at Hindi films. What you find in them .. every single film tries to capture attention of all region’s population. India is big big big country with multiple cultures and languages.you cant make films for particular part of country. It should have an universal Indian appeal. For that we somehow manage to melt every possible emotion,  in a single script so that viewers can realize that they are watching a lot in a film. Even you manage a few songs according to ‘unrequirement of script but producers’. But still you write and wishes for success.

It is something which is UNIQUE in Indian script.

Consciously or unconsciously we have made a different process of treating a film. In our country there is no common language, no common weather and no common food and taste. While in other countries they are more or less similar in every part of country. They don’t need to think what language to choose for film. But we have to do.

And another think is INDIA is still a developing country, money matters a lot for every Indian whether he is religious, devotional or a simple common man. It is there in their mind. You cant escape it. And Being Indian we have one more quality.We don’t expend a single nickle if it is not helping us in having some advantage. Even when we do ‘DAAN’ , its not totally willingly but with an expectation that it will get a good life after death . And it is everywhere.

SO when we go to watch a cinema we expect more and more and INDIAN CINEMA is providing them more and more in every film.No one dares to cut a single entertaining element. Well here when i am talking about audience , its not about intellectuals who appreciates WORLD CINEMA as for most of the people are still unaware of it. For them CINEMA bole to ‘PURE CLASSIC INDIAN CINEMA.

Its not like people dont want to watch good films. But they are very insecure about loosing their money.They want to invest money not to west. Producers know it and even they don’t take risk to confuse their daily customers. By giving them a food hey haven’t tasted before.

So considering all various possibilities, we have developed our SCRIPTS in such a way that they make sure that ‘VIEWERS ARE GOING TO WATCH A NEW FILM BUT THE TASTE IS SAME’.

But new writers are coming with new concepts. They have seen film from all directions of world. They have knowledge what is SCREEN PLAY. WHAT IS STRUCTURE ? They want to experiment with it. But sometime they just copy it or make it exactly as it is outside. They dont try to mingle it with Indian concept of script writing, which could be old and useless but is still UNIQUE in some sense. We need to capture this UNIQUENESS from Indian script tradition and have to try to build a new CONCEPT. Which has a new story, new concept and new structure but still whose taste is same.

Whatever you made you should keep in mind this is not for a particular mass, if it is so then sorry to say but you are satisfying yourself but not doing any good of cinema. Cinema means something which reaches to the larger public. If you are unable to find a way. Then it dosent mean something is wrong with the receiver but the sender.

You are the one who has to deliver, find out the address.

Session 3 : “WRITING FOR TELEVISION – in the post    Doordarshan era.”

OK so Now lets talk about another most effective medium of communication – T.V. It could be a kind of similarity that both cinema and TV shares a similar linear structure of ‘Rise ,Fall and Rise’. In 90’s, TV world began to fall and recently we can find some significant changes and varieties. Which were almost invisible in saas, bahu era.

It seems like in 90’s when India opened its door to the world and money. When we were trying to increase our bank balance. When a lot of good opportunities began to rise, writers started to seek new avenues to earn money as even at that time money was very less for them. And it was more or less a thing of passion only.

One more thing happened, it created a gap between demand and supply. People who were coming with new channels their main goal was to make money. They denied to pay enough money to good writers. It gave a chance to amateur writers who were below average in quality but ready to accept any money given by owner. As they too knew what they deserve. But people who were good they denied to compromise at least for quality.

And it took almost two decades to understand the real need of writing. You cant make viewers fool for a life time. At least not to the new generation. When new generation came , it demanded something new. And result was reality shows, comedy shows and Indian idol and all.

Now again in this global era when westerns TV is easily accessible to viewers. People are demanding something like that. And this ..’something’ .. is making a difference. You cant bring this something by ‘camera angles or extending an episode’. You have to work on story.

And now who has the story. A writer who is passionate for writing. This something can be delivered only by them. And we are here to bridge this gap. So now its the time to ask our rights.

ATISH KAPADIYA :

According to him TV has become a medium to earn money. As Cinema has no security for money but TV dose. As well as he insisted that TV writers still think that they should save the best for Cinema. And here in TV do; whatever they are asked to do. This kind of attitude is also responsible for the bad quality of TV programs.

He could be a little wrong for money and all but one thing is sure’ writers himself is responsible for his exploitation.’

VINOD RANGNATH :

The man who has written first daily soap after DD era ‘SWABHIMAN’ was very bitter for writers and supportive for producers. According to him, today’s writers dosent want to work hard. They dont want to do research. Most of the daily soap-operas carry single protagonist, whose story ends in 3 months. After that to continue the episodes writer starts extending other characters’ screen time. And it leads towards more change in sound and camera angle rather than story.

He also points out a name Mageen Dimajio , who is ’Sid Field’ for TV. But tv writers hardly know him. Thats the standard of present writers.

RAJESH DUBEY :

Writer of ‘BALIKA VADHU’ , was so much angry over producers as his every line was full of sarcastic words. He clearly mentioned that how a writer is asked to make change or to write new scenes and dialogue for the sake of TRP. As one can easily point out celebration of HOLI, DIWALI or KARAWA CHAUTH in every serial at festival seasons. He also put the problems of payment and checks.

Session 4 : “ARE INDIAN SCREENWRITING STANDARDS A    CAUSE FOR CONCERN ?”

Screenwriting and Standards ; well first of all it seems Indian cinema has no tradition of structure or technical aspects of a story. As usually we say, India has longest and richest tradition of storytelling and that tradition is still going on but Cinema is not just telling a story. It is not communicating a message. It is telling a story in such a way that it can remain in the mind of viewer.

The problem what seems to me is lies somewhere in the understanding of story and presentation. In our cinema, we have divided it into two groups, intellectual or messaging cinema and commercial cinema. Intellectual means choosing an real incident,forming a difficult story and using artistic angles , motions and pauses. While commercial means choosing a simple story and presenting it in a linear way.

But it it so ? Is there any cinematic art exist if a communicator is unable to communicate himself to the wide audience ? Whats the use of then such stories, which a common man cant understand. One may say but cinema is not just giving people lollipops and selling romantic dreams. Definitely not.But here comes the problem. Most of the time it is considered that Indian audience has no acceptance of serious things. They want cinema to be entertaining. Is it really true ? Who doesn’t want to have a Mercedes, if it is coming to him?

The point is we never try to find out a balanced way which can communicate a serious issue in an interesting way. Why ? Cause we believe in story telling only but not in forming them. Cinema is a combination of passion and technical aspects. You could have a good story teller. But if you don’t know how to present it on the screen. Sorry to say you are not fit for cinema. Better write a book or make a movie for yourself.

Here comes the need of STRUCTURE. What it dose ? It helps in arranging a story in a n interesting form. It makes every story reasonable. Your highly intellectual idea can get a very simple structure which will make it communicable to everyone and also a simple story can get a very different treatment.

Overall the thing is that… you cant put a space between story and structure. Both are complimentary to each other.

ABBAS TYREWALA :

The very first and most interesting point given by him was – Default Villein.

As right now our stories have no villein, once there were , Uneducation, Zameedar, Smuggler, Cast System and Kashmir. But with the time either they have disappeared or we have made number of films on them that now they are of no use.

In this situation we need new villein. He blames writers to not trying to find out new avenues of stories. He insists to look inside and find GRAY QUALITIES of our selves. As well as he blames writers that they don’t want to suffer for a good cause. How many times a writer denies from not doing a film he is not willing to do. They don’t dare and that’s why people exploit them.

If we want something good then we have to pay its price too.

ABHIJAT JOSHI :

Co-writer of Munnabhai- 1,2 spoke about requirement of a screen writing journal, where we new writers can avail advantage of professionals as well as the whole writing community can share itself with each other.

He also talks about FILM DNA. As every film contains its unique DNA. You cant use copy paste of another films in your film if it dosent match to the DNA of your film.

S.M. VASANTH :

He talked about his writing style, as he always asks three question to himself before starting to work on a screen play. Will the audience like his screenplay ? A simple question which so called INTELLECTUALS neglect . As well as he asked new writers not to hide THEME under traditional style of storytelling.

He used a new term HYPERLINK CINEMA, as connecting a number of stories in a single story to tell a lot at the same time. e.g ; Babel.

: SECOND DAY :

Session 5 : “THE POLITICS OF SCRIPT”

Definitely its not true that only purpose of Indian cinema is to entertain. But it is true that due to this approach many ideas have been turned down. But now we are more open than often. People have approved new subjects.

JAHNU BARUA :

He explains that , not the subject but most important thing is writer’s approach. A good writer can present a serious issue in a funny and interesting way. He should be like a pathfinder.

KAMALESH PANDEY :

He shared his old time memories with us and told that in each story he tries to find substance. And who can forget his so long ‘River of Memories’.

Session 6 : “WRITER’S RIGHTS”

The most important session of the conference was this one. In present when cinema has turned into an industry. As well as now it is run by financial system. A writer should get his share. Why to compromise ? And model contract has claimed minimum 9 lakh for a full fledged script. Highly appreciated by FWA delegates.

It is just a start. Model contract will be produced in front of producer’s committee and then it will get approval of FWICE ( federation of western India cine employees).

Its not over. FWA is also working on two more model contracts – lyricist and TV writer’s rights.

Session 7 : “THE WRITER-DIRECTOR RELATIONSHIP”

Well well the most interesting and complex part of film making. Film making is a joint venture. And it starts with a script and a director, who wants to handle it. But still we are fighting to clear the importance of writer and director.

Cinema is known as director’s medium. You have two option; either accept it or stand up against it. Director is the one who improvises the story , who enriches the story, by utilizing his resources beautifully. When a writer writes a story he visualizes a lot of things. Its not necessary that when the shoot is going on. All those things will be available. And sometime it happens that a better option is available to communicate the same feeling.

At that time director wants to make some changes and writer doesn’t like such kind of changes. Cause after making some changes director ignores writer’s hard work. They forget that whatever they are doing is based on the ‘core script’.

So what should be relationship between a director and writer ? Its a very very important question for today. And we should try to find out a reasonable answer to it.

There is also some confusion about ‘writing method of script’. Look there are three basic category – Director only, Writer Only, Writer-Director. Now when a ‘writer-director’ writes a script he knows the shooting locations, the crew, available resources and also all kind of camera angles. So he uses this pre-information in his script. In actual he writes a ‘Shotting Script’.

But when a ‘Writer Only’ writes a script he uses his visual power. He insists on the substance of story rather than the treatment of a particular scene. One can say, in the end story should be workable for the director. Ok agree. But you cant expect a writer to think as a translator of visuals. Primary he is a thinker, he works for the best possibilities of story. And directors job is to shoot those scenes in the best possible way. Thats why he is a director. If he will get everything so perfect what for he is there ? Just to hold the script and command the crew members ?

Other thing, when a writer writes he should not wonder in his own fairy world. Overall he is not writing stories for the viewer of his imagined world. His imagination is part of reality. And yes he should have a deep sense of shooting. He should be able to capture the essence of story in an interesting way rather than in a complicated way. And no doubt nothing is finished until you yourself think that its over now.

There is always a better option available. So he should be flexible enough to accept the changes, i f they are adding something good in the story. Whatever you say ’story’ was, is, and will remain a ‘fiction’ only. Sometimes real conditions dosent allow a story to express itself. Then go for a change, come with a more ‘realistic fiction’. It takes some time but it can be done.

In all cases it is not necessary that a writer should think like a director or a director should think like a writer. Both have different but common things to do. They should try to refine them. The relationship what both shares is because of ’story’. Work for it not for personal ego satisfaction.

I would like to say one more thing , both fields involved highly creative energy but still both have some technical aspects too. And its definitely not necessary that one should be perfect in others technical aspects. If one is then its for his own benefit.

PUBALI CHAUDHARI :

Raghvan asks her to tell three things, what a writer looks in a director. And her answer was simple and straight : Faith. Freedom. Acceptance.

SANJAY GADVI :

Initially he tells that the ideal combination in cinema is ‘written and directed by’.. but when Ahswani Malik took the mike , he rolled back. But still it seems our industry is not ready to give the importance to the writer. It still feels that writer’s are only ’story writer’ not screen writer..

ASHWANI MALIK :

He supported Pubali . As well as he added one more point that writer should not be taken for granted when it comes to payement of money. As personaly it is very difficult for him to raise his voice for money.

If there is a mutual understanding then a director should take care of his team members. As although money is not all what for a writer is dieing for.But yes it is The most important aspect to survive and to continue what you are doing.

VIPUL SHAH :

Vipul raises a good point that he thinks a writes should not have any fear. He should be able to stand for his conviction. What happen most of the time a writer accepts whatever is said by director. It leads towards disaster only.

No doubt industry is so much insecure for writers that they hardly say no to director. Cause in that case he will hire another writer as till yet there is no rules and regulations. But yes after approval of model contract i think there will be a number of ‘Nos’ too.

SREE RAMRAGHAVAN :

Moderated the discussion.

Session 8 : “THE WRITER – PRODUCER RELATIONSHIP”

Finally time came when Abbas Tyrewala gave an official thanks to the man who is the backbone of this whole event – Mr. Anjum Rajabali. If i dont have any memory loss then i am sure, he got the maximum applause by the delegates. And when noone stops clapping, he himself stood up to signal that ok, now come to the point and pay attention for what i am working from last two years.

In Abbas words ‘ without him it was not possible, he used his all contacts and time to make it happen, to bring it on paper and that’s why here we are.’

After that another spicy discussion took place in this session, headed by Abbas Tyrewala. He asked about the value of script / money for a producer. And producers told that in any case it is money. As they cant risk their money .

But with the change in cinema they also want to introduce new scripts but not in the cost of money. If it is good and requires low budget then they will go for it.

VIPUL SHAH :

Role of producer? Isn’t its interesting thing? Producers are considered uneducated in cinematic terms and highly educated in financial terms. Then how come they suggest a writer that what to do what to not . They keep watching collections of box-office . Do they have enough time to pay attention to the quality of script ? A lot of good questions were answered by him.

In a nut shell it was ‘ an affair to remember for life time’. I saw and learned a lot of unseen and new things. These two days were not like any other days. Now they are part of past, but they have opened a door for the upcoming future.

Good things are waiting just at the door. We have come a long , but don’t stop now its time to run and finish this race.

With all my best wishes to ‘FWA’ . Special thanks to ‘Anjum sir’, who made it possible after years of hard work.

In the end thanks to my FTII course-coordinator Mr. S.V.Raghunath to make my first traveling for Bombay so easy . And last but not the least a note of thanks to Mr. Yakoob –Our Van Driver. Who came with us and provided a good musical company throughout the journey.