How was your childhood?
My father is from Madhya Pradesh, and my mother’s roots are in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. My father was in the army, so I ended everything during my childhood. Growing with an army backdrop in the 1980s, visiting military areas and traveling with people who were carrying AK -47 and guns all the time. Punjab and Kashmir where I spent most of my childhood time. As a child, I read a lot and watched a lot of films.
Why and when did you think about becoming a writer?
Growing in an army unit, it meant that my sister and I did not go out and interacted with others. Everyone is from a different age group and a different background. Some do not have their own families. So, it was a very solitary childhood that created a lot of time and place to read. In addition, being clear, being able to express myself in words, became a priority for me.
I thought of going to FTII, but it was too much – I didn’t know how to do it. Therefore, I completed my graduation from MP, which was my father’s last posting, and then took a collective communication course in Delhi, which I did not even finish. I was lost in Delhi for marketing jobs, back-end hotel jobs, sales-three late, I was lost in Delhi. I then found this job of transferring interviews to Doordarshan, where I spent a long time to undergo interviews. Then I worked with midi tech, where we used to work on documentaries National Geographic And search. At this time, I was working in non-fiction, but I found that there were online scripts. I spent hours in reading thousands of scripts, and when I thought it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to write for films. Then, much later in life, in 2012, I went to FTII.
How did Mumbai happen?
In 2006, I got married and moved to Bangalore. It was difficult to work there because I did not know the language. Therefore, from 2009 to 2012, I stopped working, and whatever I did, the films were seen. I converted my house into a mini film library. I will also watch very vague movies from all over the world. I watched movies and read a lot of scripts. In 2012, I felt ready to go to FTII, and I enrolled there. It was on FTII, where I developed the script what was finally made Rat is stuckSo, a talent management firm came there for Tulsi, Campus recruitment. Chaitanya (Hegde), who is the head of Tulsi, read the script and really liked it, and told me that Tulsi would like to represent me. This was, for me, a big step because I thought, now I know someone who can introduce me to the industry. And they did it surprisingly. When I came to Bombay in 2014, Tulsi introduced me to lovely people like Shakun (Batra) and Kannu Behal. I also did a writing gig for Kannu. He discusses a lot, we talk a lot, sometimes stories do not go anywhere, but I had a lovely time to work with her. Then I developed something with Gattu (Abhishek Kapoor). But then, in about a year, I felt that I did not have patience for it. I think I cannot be someone’s typist, you know. I cannot be sitting there, I am writing what someone is thinking. And I am sure that the people working with me also realized. But the writings I did in my first year in Bombay did not really work, and I got bored. Around that time, Vikram Motwane read Rat is stuck. He gave it to Anurag (Kashyap), who called me to meet me. At that time, he was editing Bombay velvetHe really liked the script and told me that he wanted to make it, but then, one year went into the past in that way, and nothing happened. My script was then selected for the Mumbai Mantra, and I had to pitch it to 70 producers, which was part of the Mumbai mantra deal. It was from here that Honey Trehan read the script and liked it. Therefore, I sold the script to Honey and Abhishek (Chubi), who run the McGfin Pictures together. Now, around the same time, Vikram (Motwane) was happening in the holy sports, and ever since he read my script, he thought that both Holy game And my film somehow shares the police the universe, and called me to come on board. Therefore, I interviewed someone in Netflix and got the job of working Holy game,
Holy game Your first release was. Tell me what it was working on India’s first Netflix origin.
Initially, I felt that I was hired only because I was a woman, and they wanted to satisfy their dei (diversity, equality, inclusion) policy. And I was very conscious about that. Sudeep (Sharma) was there for a while before he proceeded to work Patal Lok Because he could handle only one of those projects. I was accompanied by Vasant Nath in the author’s room, and Varun (Grover) was the main writer on it.
Now, fun is enough, in FTII, what they do, they stop the course for some time and get a person who teaches you to write for TV. Vinod Ranganathan was a person in our course. Therefore, he came, and he was telling us about Netflix and digital and all that. He said that we should break our stories in 100 episodes, and we were like this, ‘What is he talking about?’ We only wanted to make more films with our film script. Therefore, initially, we wrote it. But suddenly, I was saying a lot. He taught us how to break a story in 100 episodes, what is mistoning and all that. This was one of the most intensive exercises, perhaps the most writing that I ever did. I picked up girls hostels or ladies hostels – which eventually became Scandal – To write as a drama, not as scary.
Now, when I started working Holy gameAnd when I read Vikram Chandra’s book, I saw learning my FTII, and I thought, ‘This is how you do’. Therefore, I was a trained writer, but it was not a property. Because other people came in a different way of writing. We do not have the tradition of learning to write in this country. We do not have a studio system like Hollywood, where the author is churning the episode after the week after week. In fact, many Hollywood movies are conversion of novels or plays. He has a hundred year old tradition of script writing. But here, it has always been under the leadership of most directors. The director will find some people and ask them to write something, then many times, the directors themselves will join the writing. Then, for dialogues, they will hire someone else. For me, FTII is coming from, it was quite different. I was a little impatient with strengthening the wheel. The author here is not sitting in a writer’s room, he has never done it in a structured manner. I would say, it was not so pleasant for me. In terms of our social and political concerns, Varun and I were on the same page. But these were nuts and bolts where it was difficult for me. The writing process was pushing and pulling a lot. For the other two writers, it was also a bit difficult that they were receiving notes from a unit (Netflix) besides the director. For me, it was not new because obtaining notes from BBC or National Geographic was normal in my earlier work. But in terms of enthusiasm, the project was very good for me. We broke the episodic beats together, worked on the structure. So, I thought, anything was possible Holy game,
What credited did you want to do on holy games?Holy game Help me to get Midnight babyThe project never happened, but we wrote it. It was with Vishal (Bhardwaj) ji. There was Mintti Tejpal, Sabrina Dhawan and I was in the room of writers. It was a brilliant room. That project did not happen, but during that time, Vishalji read my script Rat is stuck And introduced me to Aparna (priest) in Amazon. Therefore, she came on board, and then became Honey (Trehan) and Abhishek (Chubi) executive line manufacturer in McGfin. Honey has a great feeling of drama, and he immediately understood my script. The script was already written, although I was tampering with it, and the film was then produced by RSVP.
Till some time ago, a writer will never be able to do anything in cinema. But now, with the role of ‘producer’ in the show, they can. What was your experience like Scandal And transition from a writer to a writer-producer?
I think I could do it with it ScandalSudeep (Sharma) was the only person who was a pure writer who turned into a manufacturer. Now, with me, there were concerns that no authors had a room. People were difficult to believe that I could write all this myself. And I was very clear that I wanted to write alone. I had experienced the room of the authors earlier, and I certainly did not want to walk on that path. For me, more important than money or credit for shows was writing alone. I really wanted to be alone as a writer. Of course, there is a time when I will open the doors and invite opinion and response. In fact, I was hired as a creative advisor, one of the most important brains I knew from FTII, Professor Ashwini Mallik. I trusted him that there is a lot of purpose about this. He helped me with an initial evaluation with a person in Amazon. We started in 2020, then Kovid Hit, my parents were ICU and all of that. I asked Amazon if he wanted to get a big director, a big name to lead the project after writing, but then I realized that if I am a producer then why would a big director come and work? So, I myself thought of leading the show.
It states that you believe in autism. Do you?
well I do. But it is important to know where that trust is coming from. If I am looking at a woman, sitting through the window, cutting into an apple, then it is important to know where the image is coming from. If a director tells me this image, and I am writing according to his brain, he is a writer, or autism, and I have just written. But if every image is about to make a story, then I am coming from my mind, then I do that story. It is like asking if I believe that the author is autism of his novel. He is always, not that? Yes, I think cinema is more elaborate and diverse as a medium. And a lot of quarrels between writers and directors arise in this. This is the author’s fight.
How do you define success as a screenwriter?
When you work with any material, there is a lot of thinking, there is a lot of conflict in the process of understanding and finding your way with it. But there is a moment when you get answers. Suppose you are struggling with a character chap, and then suddenly you feel that this character has to be killed, and then his arc will be completed – this is the moment when you win. And no one can take it away from you. When you have tortured yourself enough, sometimes for 16-20 hours, and then when you tell it to someone, and their jaw drops, I think, success as a screenwriter.
Which films and filmmakers have impressed you the most?
I did not even know who was the fincher, and then I once got DVD and saw AmountSince then, I have seen that film at least twice every year. I can quote every dialogue. It has scenes that are crazy, they are art. The film breaks the barrier between the audience and themselves. I think I am part of its scenes.
Then Poolnsky, of course. I do not know why I liked Polansky and Woody Ellen’s films very much. I know something strange about it. But before I knew about his life, I enjoyed his work. I have seen innumerable time at Woody Allen’s work. I have seen every Woody Allen film. Also with the work of Poolnsky. I have seen each of his films.
I also like John Carpenter’s work.
Mihir Chitre is the author of two books of Kavita – Hifaneted and School of Age, and the author of the short film Hello Brick Road – Director. He is also behind the mind -winning advertising campaigns such as #LAUGHATDEATH, #HARBHASHEACUAL and others. His next book, screenwriter Ink, is coming out soon.
