He may be one of the most sought-after film writers in Mumbai today, but Sumit Arora began his journey on television. The man who has written for everyone from Shah Rukh Khan and Sunny Deol to Rajkummar Rao and Manoj Bajpayee first began his showbiz journey writing for shows like Dill Mill Gayye and Saadda Haq. In an unfiltered chat with Hindustan Times, Sumit traces his journey in showbiz and talks about the road ahead.
A start in TV, almost unwillingly
Over the years, Sumit has written for films, TV shows, and web series, and he finds all the mediums different. “A show is a more intimate viewing. When you know something is going to be watched in theatre, there is a lot of projection. There is a sense of theatrics to it in most films. It is a communication with the audience,” he explains.
TV gave him success very early in life and money, which allowed him to develop his skills. “I came to Mumbai as an 18-year-old with little knowledge of English and no knowledge of the craft. I knew writing instinctively. I did not get any work in films. But I had to survive. I only had ₹4000 with me, which would have ended in 10 days. I joined Balaji Telefilms as a trainee writer, which provided me with a place to live and a decent stipend. Now, I am grateful for that experience. It taught me a lot and gave me success and money early on.”
‘Itne paise kahan se aa rahe hain’
But money brought its fair share of problems, hilarious ones because people back home could not fathom how a 20-year-old was earning lakhs per month back in the 2000s. “I was earning a lot of money at a young age. I wanted to save that money to upskill myself for film writing. Within two years, I was earning 10-15 times my father’s salary. My father was told I have joined some gang in Mumbai, some underworld gang. He was told, ‘Tumhara beta kya kar raha hai, itne paise kahan se aa rahe hain (where is all this money coming from)’. I laugh now, but it was a serious conversation at the time,” recalls Sumit with a laugh.
Creating the lingo of Chanderi in Stree
Eventually, the money he saved from his first few years of TV writing led to a short film he directed in 2015 and released in 2016. He became friends with Amar Kaushik around this time, who met him at a cafe and asked him to write the dialogues for a film he was making for Raj and DK. That was Stree. Sumit wrote the first 15 pages of dialogue as a sample. “It was much later that I got to know that he gave that sample to 4-5 other writers, too. It was my audition,” the writer recalls. But his sample ended with the scene that defined the film – Rajkummar Rao and Aparshakti Khurrana’s banter in the now-famous ‘Bicky Pleaj’ scene. “That clinched it for me,” says Sumit.
Writing for Shah Rukh Khan and Sunny Deol
After writing for rooted stories like Stree and realistic shows like The Family Man, Sumit went mainstream with Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. “People could have the notion that I have been corrupted by going mainstream. But it’s also a film. The idea is to add your touch to it. The poem that Shah Rukh sir recites (in Jawan) is very spiritual. I had not done this before, and I will carry myself to it. I won’t do just a genre service there,” he explains his choice.
If Jawan was massy, Border 2 was massy squared. The war drama was the most over-the-top film he wrote for. The writer felt a mix of pressure, challenge, and excitement while writing the dialogue for the sequel to an iconic film. He says, “Any adventure is fun when it has all of it. By nature, I have always looked for that adrenaline rush. When I was offered Border 2, I was like that kid who was offered a dream. I watched it as a kid in Meerut. I remember the dialogue, and now I have a chance to add to that legacy.”
In his storied career, ask Sumit to pick his favourites, and he has his answer ready. “My favourite will always be Stree, because it was my first and I gave my everything to it. Then, the experience of Jawan was very special. It was my first big film. In that you learn how to work with pressure. To watch the film being made on set changed my understanding of filmmaking,” he says.
