There's a buzz in the Indian film industry that the writers are coming back in a major way. The recent success of films offering good scripts and new stories has started the latest trend of new script writers being readily embraced by the Indian Film Industry. Even the actors today have started giving importance to a well-written script. The new writers on the block have started asserting themselves and are demanding respect as well as respectable remuneration. They are charging more than £100, 000 for a script! Exclusive by Sana Rashid.

Jaideep SahniFrom a former advertising creative director to a news cameraman and a Wall Street banker, a hungry-for-story Bollywood is welcoming new writers from different backgrounds. Recently, the success of Jaideep Sahni, who wrote "Bunty Aur Babli" and "Chak De! India," and Rensil D'Silva, who co-wrote "Rang De Basanti," has paved the way to a new breed of writers, argues Sana Rashid Siddiqui in an exclusive feature for India-EU Film Initiative (www.iefilmi.com).

Screenwriting as a modern profession in India is happening in a big way. Take for instance, Anvita Dutt Guptan, who quit her job as creative director of an advertising agency in the hope of writing for Bollywood. Her dream seems to have come true after getting the opportunity to write the dialogues and songs for the forthcoming Yash Raj Films' "Bachna Ae Haseeno" and Dharma Productions' "Dostana". Then, there is Jaydeep Sarkar, a degree holder in Philosophy from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He has written the critically acclaimed "Shaurya" and Goldie Behl's forthcoming Abhishek starrer "Drona".

The much appreciated "Loins of Punjab Presents" was co-written by Anuvab Pal, a former Wall Street banker. A play written by Anuvab Pal impressed Rohan Sippy so much that the latter decided to produce Pal's work, "The President is Coming".

Alice Patten and Aamir Khan in 'Rang De Basanti' (2006). The screenplay of the film set a trend.'Rang De Basanti' (2006) generated admiration for its screenwriters Rensil D'silva and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film went on to win several top awards, including one for its original screenplay. Habib Faisal, news cameraman-turned screen writer for "Salaam Namaste", "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" and "Tara Rum Pum", feels that there is immense pressure to create something new and says "Earlier the formula was hatke, now it is kitna hatke."

Among the new breed there is another writer Chetan Bhagat, who, even after writing two best sellers, has not quit his comfortable job at Deutsche Bank. However, he is fully involved in Bollywood too, having adapted the screenplay of "Hello," a forthcoming Salman-Katrina starrer based on his last book "One Night @ the Call Centre". "It is literature coming to life. Yeah the biggest attraction of this movie is that it will capture a wider audience. When you have stars like Salman, Katrina, Sharman Joshi, Isha Koppikkar, Amrita Arora, Sohail Khan playing the characters in the book, it means more publicity for my story too. Though, I am nervous about the movie!," said Bhagat in his latest interview to an Indian paper. Also, Raju Hirani's forthcoming Aamir starrer "Idiots" is based on his first book "Five Point Someone".

Modern day screenwriters are much different from the writers of the 50s and 60s when the scripts were written on the sets of the movie. The writers in those days accompanied the cast and crew on the sets of the movies and hence, the scripts too evolved as the shooting progressed. These days however, Hindi scripts are written in English on software such as the 'Final Draft' which costs about $300, making it all the more possible for any individual with a creative bent of mind to become a screenwriter.

Manto, Bedi, and Abbas: The Screenwriters of Yesteryears

Saadat Hasan MantoThere was a time when legendary writers as such as Sa'adat Hasan Manto, (Kisan Kanya 1936, Apni Nagariya 1939, and Mirza Ghalib 1954 etc.) and Rajinder Singh Bedi (Dastak, Ek Chaader Maili Si, Abhimaan, Anupama, Satyakam, and Madhumati etc.) wrote for films. And then there were writers such as Sharat Chandra and Premchand whose literary pieces were adapted for films. These pioneers made any film worth watching and listening to as well.

Manto and Bedi shaped unforgettable characters and wrote quotable dialogues. Also, who can ever forget the dialogues of "Mughal-e-Azam" which were written by veterans Aman, Kamal Amrohi, Wajahat Mirza, Ehsan Rizvi, and Saghar Nizami.

However, we must not forget the fact that there were actors in those times who added real value to the dialogues in their own inimitable style. They understood what they were saying in front of the camera. Diction and emotion were their main weapons whether we talk about Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, and Raj Kumar or Meena Kumari, Nutan, Nargis, and Waheeda Rehman.
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There were also writers whose names lent credibility to any film project. Take for example, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas (Neecha Nagar, Aawara, Jaagte Raho, Mera Naam Joker), Krishan Chander (Dharti Ke Lal, Maa Bhumi), and Kamleshwar (Aandhi, Mausam), followed by Salim-Javed of "Sholay," "Deewar," and "Zanjeer" fame. In those days, one could assume easily who the dialogue writer was while watching a film. One should not forget writer, director and lyricist Gulzar who penned a number of brilliant films.

And then came a time (1980s and 1990s) when film directors and producers preferred to write their script themselves. Out of which, many were awful. One trend was (and still is) to borrow the plot as well as dialogues from a Hollywood film. However, no writer worth any salt would like to be associated with this sort of plagiarism.

The Film Writers' Association Gets Its Act Together
Sahir LudhianviOld-fashioned and appallingly slow, the Film Writers' Association, once headed by renowned poet Sahir Ludhianvi, is also getting its act together and has finally created its website (http://www.fwaindia.com/). The association registers screenplays, concepts, and dialogues of writers and updates members about laws and changing regulations.

Recently, the Executive Committee of the association announced its aim to draft a model contract which would include essential clauses on minimum payment by slabs, credit and copyright protection, and royalties, but it is yet to be negotiated with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees and the Producers' Guild.

Private and corporate efforts in galvanising the writers' community are more encouraging. The India Screenwriting Workshop, designed for 10 aspiring screenwriters to interact in group and individual sessions with screenwriters of international repute, was organised in February this year.

The Film Writers' Association has started emphasising that scripts are a writer's intellectual property and the latter must get their fees on time. The fee structure for screenwriters is also going through a paradigm shift which varies between Rs 500,000 and 1000, 0000 (£5,813-116,279 @Rs 86). Interested!