WHY IS THERE SUCH A DEARTH OF GOOD SCRIPTS IN INDIA? Moderator: Anjum Rajabali Panelists: Vishal Bhardwaj, Sriram Raghavan, Vikramaditya Motwani, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shridhar Raghavan Screen 1, Cinemax Infiniti, 1 PM, Oct 17 (This is part of the MAMI Film Festival) India is a story-telling culture, with the deepest and richest heritage of narrative traditions. And, yet, it remains a confounding anomaly that the average quality of our film scripts remains questionably low. In spite of there being no dearth of ideas, or story-telling talent in this country, why do we produce such few good screenwriters? This is not a problem of today; it has dogged the film industry for decades. The panel will explore the likely causes of this puzzling phenomenon. Is it because we dont have a tradition of screenwriting apprenticeship, dont have enough institutes that offer screenwriting as a subject? Or is it because the screenwriting function has been historically undervalued and underpaid? Or is the pre-eminence of directors who claim authorship of their films contributing to the undermining of the screenwriter’s position? Or is producer or studio-anxiety which insists on ‘safe’, star-driven projects, or only the overarching preference for remakes responsible for quality original scripts not being produced? The discussion will also chase up possible solutions - mentorship programmes, more workshops, more training facilities, more exposure to our traditional narratives and mythology, better terms, rights protection.. There may be no easy and immediate solutions. But, there is no denying the fact that the problem is serious enough to merit debate and action. Come with your questions!
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 07:44:49 +0000