Bollywood treats its screenplay writers poorly. Most of the time their job is not to raise questions, but to simply answer them, notes Anirudhya Mitra
a producer, while handing over a DVD to a scriptwriter, says, “Bro, take a look at this movie. Write it. I’ve a cast ready who love this movie. We are shooting it in Bangkok. And we will rock!”
Now, the scriptwriter is a struggling one — of a kind that Bollywood is full of. They have written many original scripts but can hardly find a buyer. But he needs work. He needs
releases to his name and money to survive. He gets back to the producer after watching the DVD, and says the film is interesting but doesn’t work for the Indian viewers. Also, it should not be shot on a foreign locale or else Indian viewers might lose connection. The producer doesn’t agree since he claims to have mastered the art of shooting his films in ghettos abroad. He tells the writer to think fast. The writer is scared now. “Boss, can you please instruct your production manager to make my contract? Actually my financial situation is...” The producer cuts in, “Not an issue, bro. Not an issue. You start the work. Money will flow. By the way don’t miss the party tonight”.
Six months later, the same writer is hugely excited sitting in a five-star hotel in Kolkata, busy making the script more location specific after having done a recce of the city along with his director and the technical team. After much deliberation, the producer had agreed not to shoot the film in Bangkok.
Suddenly the creative director of the production house drops in the scene and informs shooting has been cancelled. Why? Why? Why? Everyone asks in disbelief. The creative director tells that the hero of the film doesn’t consider Kolkata good enough to party after shooting. He is shooting another film in San Francisco some four months later, so the writer has to change the fourth draft of his script accordingly. But the kind of crime that takes place in this film is non-existent in San Francisco, the writer opines. The creative director says he has conveyed the producer’s message and his job was over. The entire team catches the next flight back to Mumbai.
Now who said “script is the key”, was it Syd Field, one of Hollywood’s most successful screenplay writers? When UTV brought him to Mumbai and organised a workshop for the film fraternity? Ever since, every producer in town chants the line while engaging a writer for his next film. And that’s where the writer is shown his status in the industry. His real status in the industry. To, begin with, the scriptwriter has to take a cut. A huge cut in fact. Because the producer has so many reasons for it even as Syd Field’s mantra is promptly sidelined. The producer opens his collections of excuses:
A. The writer is getting a break. B. He has no release to his credit (as if completing the film and it’s subsequent release were among the writer’s contractual obligations). C. The writer’s last film didn’t work. D. The Producer has to pay humongous fees to the stars. E. The producer will pay well in the next film, the writer should adjust this time. F. The producer isn’t sure if the film will eventually be made. G. The producer is making his first film. The writer must help him. H. A writer’s name doesn’t help the producer sell his film. I. The making of the film is going to cost a lot. All the songs got to be shot abroad. J. Recession. The most
favoured word of the producers today. K. The producer wants to sell the script first to a financier first and then pay.
L. If a star has approved the script, then the producer doesn’t mind fulfilling the writer’s expectation. M. There is no standardisation of fees for scriptwriters in India. N. The producer is trying to recover from his earlier flops.
I could have easily gone up to Z. But the real issue is why are scriptwriters in Bollywood treated so poorly. Yes, there are exceptions. But it has taken them too an unreasonable length of time to prove a point. One of Bollywood’s top writers, Abbas Tyrewalla, said Indian scriptwriters will not get their due unless they learn to say “no”. He is right. I am trying to muster the same courage. I am well aware of the hard way he has come through but he always had it in him — to be able to say “no”.
Writer-cum-director Anurag Kashyap is a tough nut to crack. But he too has learnt the hard way.
The Writers’ Association of India is fighting to eke out what is rightly due to a writer. But why can’t we change our mindset when it comes to dealing with a writer? Isn’t he or she the one to deliver the key to the success of the film? Is he or she not the only member of the team who starts the project? Isn’t he or she the only one who fulfils all his or her tasks much before the film even goes on the floor? Isn’t he or she the only one who has to wait for his or her last instalment to materialise till the post production of the film gets over? No. The writer’s job is not to raise questions but to answer them.
— Mitra is a screenwriter based in Mumbai.
anirudhya.mitra@gmail.com