Keep the coconuts, thanks

Illustration/Uday Mohite

It is impossible not to fall in love with the utterly delightful writer-director Sai Paranjpye - even more than one is already - when she says, "I was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mumbai Film Festival...I told them plainly that if it is a shawl and a coconut, they can keep it. But yes, if there is money, that would be helpful. Initially, I used to feel weird…(but) how many shawls and coconuts can I take home?" This hilarious anecdote is from Anubha Yadav's brilliant book Scripting Bollywood: Candid Conversations with Women who write Hindi Cinema. Youthful veteran Paranjpye has done the screenplay and direction for 23 works, including Sparsh and Chashme Buddoor; her Disha won two awards at Rencontres Cinematographiques de Cannes and was at 17 film festivals. Continuing my interest in Yadav's book, that focuses on 14 women screenwriters of Bollywood/Hindi cinema, whose work spans about 50 years, and is published by Women Unlimited (an associate of Kali for Women, Rs 675). Teeming with insights, and superb conversations on the craft and lives of writers, it would be of interest to anyone interested in Bollywood, Indian cinema and women's real contribution to film.

Okay now, which film would you imagine Juhi Chaturvedi - wonderful writer of Vicky Donor, Madras Cafe, Piku, October and Gulabo Sitabo - looks up to? Some Nora Ephron-wala film? Aparna Sen's 36 Chowringhee Lane? Bong Joon-ho's Parasite? No. "The one film I would have wanted to write is Thithi; it is an outstanding, crazy movie," she says, referring to the Kannada satire, written by first timers Ere Gowda and Raam Reddy - and you just like her a whole lot more. "Juhi Chaturvedi is among the handful of screenwriters whose name is enough to get a project going in Bollywood," Yadav observes. She always goes on the set, and also sits in on the edit of films she writes. She insists writers have the confidence to tell an actor, who suggests saying a line differently, "No, there is a reason why it has taken three years to write this line exactly the way it is." Ohoho! More power to you, Juhi, and may your tribe multiply like Omicron. She also appreciates that director Shoojit Sircar, with whom she has
collaborated on all her films, "started this trend" by giving her credit in the promotions for October as well.

I always feel a vicarious pleasure when journalists become successful film writers or directors. Bhavani Iyer, who started out with Stardust magazine, went on to write high profile films, including Black, Guzaarish, Lootera and Raazi, and the web series Breath-2 and Kaafir. The first film she wrote was Black for Sanjay Leela Bhansali. "He felt I could see things in a fresh way because I had not seen too many films, I had no baggage. I didn't know the conventional way of storytelling in Hindi movies," she recalls. "I was very young…I had no fear…it didn't even occur to me that I should take a course in screenwriting. I wrote the story the way it played out in my head. I will call it the valour of the foolish!" From there she has reached a far more exalted state: "For Raazi, I started off by writing Iqbal's character sketch before writing the screenplay…my characters live around me, they talk to me in my sleep. I'm just a medium; I'm just keying in the words."

"Writers produce their best material when they don't have a gun to their head, when they don't have to please anybody but themselves," Iyer reflects. She is emphatic that the films she has written are not populist. "I love a film like Chennai Express…but I can't write it," she confesses. Despite working with some of the finest - including Bhansali, Vikramaditya Motwane and Meghna Gulzar - it is clear she's not about to be bowled over by Bollywood, unless impressed: "I have written a lot, around 47 scripts, but… I'm happy keeping them to myself," she says. And all these are only a teensy bit of the riches of Yadav's book.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com