In fond memory of Bobby Khan
First things first. Disclaimer: Long post. This is a work of a demented filmi who is just back from the Indian Screenwriters Conference held at Bombay on 13-14 Dec ‘08. Bobby Khan is a collective pseudonym for the film writers who survived / perished in the 80s & 90s. My heart goes out to these guys. No offence meant to anyone / anything. Just some thoughts that need / ought to be shared with fellow-filmis who missed being there at the event. Dimaag ki khidkiyan khul gayi yaar (windows of brain opened).
OK, now how / why did I choose to name the film writers of that era as Bobby Khan. If you would have been there you would know. But as you weren’t there & I was (really sorry for rubbing it in, but the pleasure is all mine)… let me explain. There was this guy who could have easily passed off as a clerk at Dena Bank (Rajmohalla Branch, Indore) who made his presence felt at the conference. He was bursting with mad frustration which he made evident in the Q&A sessions. Being the loner & psycho that I am, I decided I will try and find out, uska lafda kya hai yaar (wutz his problem).
I did what I had to and by the end of the 2-day conference, realized that he wasn’t alone. There was a whole goddamn bunch of people who have had a tough time surviving as film writers in an industry where nobody gave a rabbit’s derierre about them. They have been used to being walked all over by anyone and everyone and finally here is a forum where the issues are being addressed, but f*** its too f****** late for Bobby Khan & other writers in his league.
The ISC ‘08 has been an event which the film writers have been waiting for almost 2 decades (may be longer) but the good news is that It has happened finally. The ice has broken. The writers’ fraternity has come together, issues have been raised & Insha Allah solutions will be arrived upon (sooner or later). What an event it was. A historic one for the film writers in India. Writing being a damn loney process it was a surprise (to me) that they could actually come together in huge numbers from far & wide & speak in one voice & agree to co-exist / start a revolution.
I would like to share some stuff that struck me in the conference (may or may not be in a chronological order).
All writers don’t make good speakers & good speakers don’t necessarily make sense all the time. There was a question raised in the 1st session’s Q&A round which struck me. “Do writers have to die before they get their due?” This was something which bothered everyone but many chose not to talk about it. The question was very potent as the 1st session was about the late Vijay Tendulkar and I thought I could see the reason why that question was swept under the carpet.
The second session was about what makes the Indian script unique gave some great insights especially from Nasreen Munni Kabir where she provided a global perspective of Indian films. It came as a shocker when we spoke about the purpose of Indian cinema abroad. Some reasons were SRK, The Great Indian Wedding & stunning choreography!!! Where’s the story telling in this list? Shame!
A major highlight of the day was Abbas Tyrewala’s talk. It scared & inspired. He said that the real challenge of story telling begins now. Good vs. evil & romantic films are over and done with. All that was to be said was said ab kaunsi kahani sunaaoge yaar! The pursuit of telling fresh stories has to begin. The grey areas within us all need to be explored. No other way out. Take it or take it. Or join Dena Bank. Wink.
Another point mentioned by Abhijat Joshi made tremendous sense – THERE IS NO OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF / FOR INDIAN FILM WRITERS. No, not Filmfare, Stardust kinda stuff. Something like the science journals where Indian film writers share their insights / tips / gyaan which is solely educational. not entertaining. I moot for this. PFC is on the way, almost there, but something more official (whatever).
The next session was about tele-writing which was again shocking. The plight of tele-writers as expressed (may be exaggerated to dramatize it like their soaps) was a rude shock. The ‘money bags’ that govern the writer’s nib on a day-to-day basis was unfathomable. Re-writing stories due to market research or a fancy of the production house boss were things that’ll make sure aspiring writers will either keep off tele-writing or get in for wrong reasons.
Then there was a session about ‘Politics of the script’ where the subject of writing politics doused subjects was disucssed. There was lot of dead air in this session but then came the rocker – Jahnu Barua. GODDAMN HILLARIOUS. He brought the house down & how! One of his quotes “I am a filmmaker & I am crazy, my wife is a filmmaker & she is crazy too!” That was profound Sir! Then Kamlesh Pandey (writer of RDB) took over and spoke. wisecracks, gags, anecodtes et al. The guy just refused to stop. He went on & on and one thing that made utter sense was “Have a back-up career. Dont count on film writing as a primary career choice. Sell peanuts by the day & write during nights.”
(It was my paisa wasool session)
Another session that followed was about the writers’ rights. The model contract for film writers & its nitty-gritties were brought forward. This something (if pulled off) will secure a lot of new film writers & for the first time in my life I heard that a story, screenplay & dialogues for one film can be sold for Rs. 9 lakh (they arrived at the digit after brainstorming for months together). There were many people who think it’s impossible, but hats off to Mr. Anjum Rajabali who is working to make it possible. Thanks to him, I hope there won’t be any more Bobby Khans in the fresh lot of film writers.
There were elaborate sessions on writer-director relationship & writer-producer relationship which were amazing thanks to Sriram Raghavan & Abbas Tyrewala (AT). Now a special mention of AT. Utter clarity of thoughts, speach & action. He was the samurai of the show. No pretentions, no political correctness. F****** razor sharp. the way he stripped the producers and brought out the issues it was just mind blowing. Here I would also like to add that the guys representing the producer fraternity weren’t appropriate, but what they said made sense. The economics that came out was that any film which costs over Rs. 8cr requires stars / item numbers etc. But good stories (without any stars) which can be told within 3 cr is viable. So guys, its time to write stuff keeping this in mind.
I couldn’t wait for the last session, but this much was too much to handle for my humble khopdi ki jhopdi. Tremendous khalbali. Symapthies for Bobby Khan & his clan. Haven’t watched Rab ne cuz of this conference & I think I am lucky, going by the buzz @ PFC. Well, I will watch it anyways for Surinder Sahni from Punjab Power. Till the next time, stay filmi!
P.S.: Anurag Kashyap didn’t make it to the conference. Paise waapas karo #$%^&*^^%&^&^%!
Tags: film writers association, ISC 08, screen writing
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wow- that was a great article!:) Felt as if I was there attending with all Bobby Khans!
Keep it up writers! Come up with new ideas, great scripts- sell peanuts by the day if you must but do write by the night!
Good job Magik! was waiting to read this.
Glad u guys liked it. but nothing really compares to actually breathing the same air like the greats that had gathered @ ISC 08.
@ Magik
Thanks a ton for posting this coverage. Couldn’t attend this one due to some pressing work out of town…and i miss it all the more after reading this.
A well made point was how writers are generally reclusive and it’s a bit odd to see them turn in big numbers and discussing their rights and craft.
And Abhijat Joshi made a good point about a proper journal of screenwriter’s but am not sure how feasible it is, if done in an organized way. (And esp. after PFC, I truly believe that) dreams like these can be fulfilled only by Independent groups working more on self-motivation rather than on the legacy/support/duaa of a Union/Association. But I am all game for it (compiling, editing, designing such a journal), if somebody here is ready to do the required math.
‘My heart goes out to bobby khan’
bobby khan reminds me of john Milton, like
After his death, Milton became the subject of partisan, biographies.
indeed, i don’t have any words to adore magik,
sometimes it’s beyond words… all i can say is
he uses his heart first and pen next…
now am not gonna say as usually great job,
coz,this is rare, unique, & moving.
god bless & bestow u with more thoughts like this…hey bro but don’t forget one thing, what?
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ROCK ON…
@ Varun: Bro, even I am all for doing whatever within my capacity to get the journal out. But the FWA has to be the body to fund it & make sure that the articles come from the required sources etc. They have the database of all filmwriters, so they can distribute it best. Also they can include the price of the journal as a part of the membership fee! That takes care of it yaar. What say?
@ Deepu: Thanks bro. Ur words of encouragement go a long way in keeping the magik alive. Can’t thank you enough!
Magik thanks for writing…its quite entertaining…and thanks for attending ISC and making it huge success…in fact thanks to all the members of fraternity.
Kumar Gautam
EC Member, FWA
waah mazaa aaya…werent you guys allowed to take pics or some sorts?
@ KG: sirjee thanks for putting up this event.
@ OM: yaar i was so dumbstruck that clicking pix was the last thing on my mind. just a look at sriram raghavan, kamal haasan, abbas tyrewala and other biggies… all i could do was offer my regards. anything else seemed frivolous.