How likely is it that a family moves from Pune, India to Southern United States, probably has very little to do with the entertainment world, and yet their offspring chooses a career in acting and starts off by being in an Oscar winning short film, the West Bank Story? Very likely, if you are Noureen Dewulf and like to challenge yourself every so often. Noureen has since gone on to play varied characters in films and television. Sharing space with actors such as Matthew McConaughey in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Jeremy Piven in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.

We catch up with Noureen on her upcoming challenges:

What made you take up the acting profession?
Acting has always been my passion.

What was it like being a part of an Oscar winning short?
It was an incredible experience. Especially since “West Bank Story” was my first film…my first starring role, for it to go on and win an Oscar was just completely unexpected.

Being South Asian American, what challenges and opportunities does Hollywood present to you?
This is a very complicated question that I cannot answer simply. It is a challenging journey for an ethnic actress in Hollywood as stereotypes are very hard to escape and an ethnic actor/actress has to know how to find a balance between playing characters as they are written and just enjoying the simplicity of that choice versus examining the material to see what the fallout reaction to your character will be (if any) in society…

Would Bollywood be a world, that might interest you and would language be an issue?
I would certainly entertain the idea of doing a Bollywood film if the right script and role were presented to me. I would love to work in Hindi/Urdu, as I did speak it growing up, I would love to perform in a film with Hindi or Urdu. There is something very beautiful about our South Asian languages and I would be thrilled to use it in a film.

Talk a little about your upcoming projects, in both films and television?
A) “The Back Up Plan” stars Jennifer Lopez and is a romantic comedy, in the film I play Daphne, her friend who works in her pet store. “The Taqwacores” based on the novel of the same name is about Yusef, an undergrad who moves into a house of Muslim Punk Rockers. In the film I play Rabeya a punk rock riot girl who wears a Burkha as her punk rock statement. I’m also recurring on a new MTV comedy called Hard Times of RJ Berger as Claire. And I’m also recurring on TNT’s “Hawthorne” starring Jada Pinkett Smith.

From a medium perspective, television or feature films, which is your preferred choice and why?
A) As far as TV I love it. I love how fast people can see your work. The final product is based directly on the script. As far as films, well films are forever and that is special. Both have their own unique advantages, I really don’t have a preference, I just love to play interesting characters.

A couple of months back, Siddharth Kumar’s Semshook, played to critical acclaim at the San Jose Film Festival, Cinequest. Siddharth had earlier made the very likeable and different, Let’s Enjoy. Here we catch up with Siddharth, his wife, actress Roshni Chopra and the writer of the film, Sudip Sharma.

What was the motivation for making this film, an Indian living in Bollywood, making a film which is neither totally Indian in subject matter, nor Bollywood?
The primary motivation is, we are always talking about the Tiger going extinct, and here there is a culture (Tibet) that is going extinct. India is uniquely placed in that we have given shelter to this culture. At the same time, we are also contributing to the process of eroding it, cause when Tibetans come and live in India and see the opportunities that we as Indians have, the economic boom that we are in the midst of, they want to participate in it. When they do so they lose a part of their culture. So Tibet is really trapped between the cultures of India and China. Given that, it is not very long before, as a culture, they go extinct, hence the desire to tell their story. I also work as a D o P in documentaries and I was in Dharamsala to shoot a Tibetan boy, for a documentary, which never got completed. That was about 6 years ago and the story has since remained with me. So that’s how we came upon this idea.

You do realize that a film such as Semshook, is not your typical Bollywood film and there are going to be challenges and despite that, you probably knowingly took this path…why?
See I do have a Bollywood career already, I’ve signed a couple of Hindi films, I’ve made one, which was slightly off Bollywood, I do a lot of Television and am working with Yash Raj right now in Television, that being said, I studied film, to tell stories that have resonance, not just to Indians but around the world. And I think this is a story like that. It’s a universal theme. It’s really a spiritual film which mirrors the life of the Buddha, of going for the search of himself and divesting himself of all the possessions in the process. In the film too, the protagonist, to discover who he is and his Tibet, has to leave everything behind and he ends up with not even a piece of cloth on his body.

The Bay Area has a huge Tibet support group. So what motivated you to select the Cinequest, San Jose festival, as the one you wanted to showcase your film?
We are completely maverick filmmakers in that sense the producer pretty much used his own money, we don’t have any Sales Agent or any Hollywood backing so we would probably have got lost in the bigger festivals. And for a film such as this, we needed to build better traction, amongst friendlier festivals and given that Cinequest in one of the top ten festivals in the US, and it’s also known as being a really friendly festival. The founders and organizers are here all the time, and that’s the kind of handholding that we need at this stage, with a film that is so sensitive and so small.

Since Let’s Enjoy, where have you disappeared?
Let’s Enjoy was also made with a maverick manner. The movie was made on a very limited budget with basically all my friends. Since I was living in Delhi at that time, I didn’t understand anything about Bollywood, back then. Two years after that I moved to Mumbai and have been working on cracking the system, knowing that it’s a very tough system to crack. There are certain zamindars whose families are in charge and to crack that system it takes a long time. So I’ve had a couple of abortive attempts at film and now I’m working with the biggest production house in the country, so I will be making something sooner or later, but have done a lot of Television in the interim.

Let’s Enjoy had a freshness of characters not seen in Bollywood, as you become a part of Bollywood how are you going to retain your freshness?
My primary purpose is to be an artist, to express myself through what I’m given. Bollywood very often, you don’t have complete control over your script. If you get a call from the top guy and are told to direct a script of their choosing, you can turn it down, but it would be stupid to do so. After that your job is to sit with the writer and fuel your artistic personality into the script. So if you do see my work as a Bollywood feature, you will probably see something original. How original not sure, there will be so many cooks in that broth, it’s going to get a little like a khichdee.

Roshni, what was the struggle as someone involved from outside, in the making of the film?
The struggle begins now, to get it out there, to get people to support it. While making the film, we all totally believed in it.

Roshni Chopra is your typical mainstream television, good, bad or ugly, Semshook is not, so how come the decision to come out and support it, glad that you are putting your two cents there, but is it going to cause any confusion to the audience, thinking this is a mainstream Bollywood film?
I think whatever fills the seats. It’s all for a good cause and as long as the intent is good, that’s what matters.

Questions with Sudip Sharma, the writer of the film.

From Superstar to Abbas Mastan, to Semshook?
Always wanted to do different kind of stuff. I am a MBA by education and was working in Sales and Marketing, somewhere down the line realized this is not for me and I switched to cinema, which in Mumbai means Bollywood. Like to believe that I am a world cinema buff so would like to operate in that field and not restrict myself to Bollywood. I do enjoy Bollywood cinema and am working on the remake of the Italian Job for Abbas Mastan. Will also be working on Siddharth’s next film. So looking for a balance in the kind of scripts that I write and do.

As a writer for Semshook, how much of it was picked up from the real world and how much is make believe?
A lot of it was real because the genesis of the story is from an activist and poet in Dharamsala called Tenzing. So we had the sniff of his story from him and his book of poetry. So the idea was to take it to another level and make it cinematic, so not stopping at where his story stops. A lot of it is real and a lot of it is also from the experiences we had in Dharamsala. The window that opened up to me, when I was in Dharamsala, have been incorporated into the film.

Sabrina Dhawan was a college student in Columbia University, when she presented the script of Monsoon Wedding to Mira Nair. From there on this film won the fancy of the entire nation and became one of the highest grossing movie of it’s times. Not one to repeat things, Sabrina, went on to write the critically acclaimed, Cosmopolitan and then late last year and early in 2010, two wonderful Bollywood gems, Kaminey and Ishqiya, both of which have revolutionized the concept of traditional Bollywood and yet both have gone on to become commercial success. If that is not all, Sabrina, is on the full time faculty of screenwriting at NYU. So how does this talented writer come out with such diverse and interesting writing? Read on:

You seem to get into the psyche of the cities really well. Delhi in Monsoon Wedding, Mumbai in Kaminey and Gorakhpur in Ishqiya, how does someone sitting in New York accomplish that?
Well I grew up in Delhi , before it became the Delhi of today. Culturally, Delhi now is very removed from where rural India is, but growing up in that city  it was very much a part of my life. My mother came from Lucknow, so that was part of me. In Ishqiya the details of Gorakhpur were really not mine, that was more Abhishek and Vishal, I probably would not be able to write a modern small town now, as I could in a way, perhaps ten to fifteen years ago. So I do write what I really know. Delhi I know very well, New York I somewhat know. I’m sure it’s a matter of upbringing.

Vishal Bhardwaj and Mira Nair, two ends of a creative spectrum, how was it collaborating with these two, as a writer?
Other than the fact that they were both wonderful experiences, in practical person every person is different and has a distinct style. Also the nature of what I was doing was different. With Monsoon Wedding I had already written the script, as a first draft, before I showed it to Mira. She then became involved as directors generally are, and the script is developed. But she got involved at that post first draft point. With Vishal he already had a script, which sort of needed working and I came in at a point where there already was a first draft. All directors think and approach material differently. Mira thinks much more in visual director sense, what the setting will be, will this look good, how would you see it. Vishal started off actually telling stories, so he looks at it much more like, does the story make sense. For both music is very important, both are incredibly astute about casting, so some differences and some similarities in working with both.

You teach screenwriting at NYU, how does that help and harm your real world screenwriting ?
The way it helps is, as a writer a lot of your lives are very solitary, you sort of work on your own, unlike directors or producers wherein you just have to be in the midst of other people. Screenwriting you pretty much do on your own and then later on people get involved. When I teach it breaks the solitariness. It is also a little bit of part of being Desi. The loneliness gets to me a little bit, so although I teach two days a week, when I happen to go out on those two days, being around young writers who are not cynical. I mean you go into film, initially for no other reason other than you feel passionate about it. Cause it’s not the most stable or steady of life. After a while the routine sets in and you become cynical about this entire process. On the other hand, being with young writers who are so energetic, who are so committed to telling their story, there is a lot of purity in that which is very energizing and very inspiring. That I love about teaching.  It sort of feeds into my own sense of energy. For the most part it is more helpful than not, the way it is not helpful is managing my time. I almost have no time for anything.  So between writing deadlines, teaching, plus the administration and deadlines tend to happen at the same time and week, then of course I go insane J

Is there a director in you?
You know what, YES ! When I first decided that I wanted to be in the movie business , given that I did not come from that world, I always thought that’s what I would do…direct. I came to film school in Columbia to do precisely that. It just sort of happened that it became quite apparent that I had the ability to write. I hadn’t seen a screenplay before I came to film school. But I did well in my writing classes and then I wrote Monsoon Wedding and Mira saw it and from then that, sort of naturally became my career  and the work I got was in writing. My next step in my fantasy world is to go back and direct. I’ve worked on a lot of scripts that haven’t become movies, cause as a writer you often get paid to write a movie, but it doesn’t necessarily become a movie, due to other factors that are out of your control. Directors have told me that I write like a director, in that I write things as I see them happening and what I see people doing. So yes, absolutely, that’s why I started doing this. I mean I like writing a lot, but yes, I would also like to direct. I did do a short film when I was in film school, called Sanjh, that was also how I met Mira, it was a 20 minute short  and it won a whole lot of awards, like film festivals and got nominated for the student Academy awards.  Then Monsoon Wedding happened and that launched me more on the writing career.

Till now you have done an Indian story, an Indian American (Cosmopolitan ) story, now any desire to do a full on mainstream American story, given that you have spent considerable part of your life in the USA?
A few years ago, that would have been easy for me to answer and I would have said, “of course,” “absolutely.” “I’ve lived in America for 12 years and I don’t want to get pigeonholed as just an Indian writer, I want to do other things .” But what I’ve found as I have gotten older and now that I have been writing for almost a decade, is that, the truth of it is that no matter how much I would want to resist it, the stories that I am really excited about writing, deal with Indians whether that be the Diaspora, whether in an Inter cultural way, come from India. Those are the stories I want to write about. They are the people I instinctively understand. The advantage of writing for the mainstream America is definitely the financial gain aspect. I mean Indian American films like Cosmopolitan and Bolllywood Hero, are very small films, with lower budget and have smaller audiences. So it would be good if I did that and I would be writing much more for a North American audience, but it just seems to interest me less.

Kaminey, Ishqiya, both these are “new Bollywood.” Does new Bollywood offer your more opportunities than the traditional setting ?
Of course, absolutely, because you know when there are different kinds of films being made, you can write stories, the Mumbai term for that is “hat ke.” But I ‘m also very interested in mainstream Bollywood films, cause that’s what I grew up with. Manmohan Desai and Yash Chopra, that whole culture of cinema and it’s not like it’s easy to tell those stories or write in that form. It’s a combination of factors, one is that, there are these new kind of films being made, that makes it possible, then the Censor board has evolved in India, so you can write material without worrying about that part of conflict. The rise of the multiplex and the metro makes it financially possible to make those kind of films. You couldn’t really do that earlier. The parallel cinema movement of the 70’s was small, it made no money which is why it went away. Also because of the multiplex more movies are being made, which correlates to more opportunities. And then you also meet people with a similar sensibility.

Any interest in writing for Television in India?
No, I cannot stand Indian Television. American Television I’d be very interested in, it has become so interesting and they do such amazingly good work in it, but I can’t even bear to watch most Indian TV. Interestingly in India, the movies have gone more interesting and Television has really deteriorated. One time we had some interesting stuff like Hum Log and Buniyaad and Khandaan, there was really good Television and now it’s just crap serials.  In the US it’s gone the other way around and Television has become really smart and interesting.

Upcoming projects that you can talk about?
The big one is an adaptation of Monsoon Wedding, for Broadway. These producers are big producers in Mumbai , bought the rights for the movie, so that is what I am currently writing. It is hard cause I’ve never written for the stage before. Broadway musicals are also a more specific form of writing plays.  So that’s the big thing I’m working on right now. It is scheduled to potentially play in Broadway in 2012. Of course keep in mind it is hard to say for sure, since there are a number of writes and rehearsals and then get the space to put it on, cause things are booked for years in advance so 2012 is tentative at best.

Lets work in the reverse gear here. Now there is the film, MY NAME IS KHAN, there are the actors, the director, the song, etc. But before all this, it must have been the writer, who looked around and decided, away from all the fame and noise, perhaps in solitude or perhaps amongst people, that this story and these characters, had to be created and brought to the large screen. Here we probe that mind, which earlier gave us FANAA, KANK, etc and talk with the writer of MY NAME IS KHAN (MNIK), Shibani Bhatija. Having interacted, quizzed and probed her earlier, in SF and LA and NY, the one thing she doesn’t lack, is absolute conviction in her work. She is ready to face all questions, the true hallmark of a believer in their craft. Over to Shibani:

To you as a Writer, what is My Name Is Khan all about?
My Name is Khan is all about belief. Beginning with Karan’s belief in me where he, for the first time in his career, is directing a film someone else has written. Then, Karan and my belief in a love story, that encompasses not just romantic love, or filial love, but the greater love of humanity. The belief, of the entire cast and crew, in what was always going to be an out-of-comfort zone, and an immensely challenging film. And, last but not the least, the belief of the character Rizvan Khan that there are good people who do good to others and there are bad people who do bad and that is the only difference between human beings.

What made you take up this story, as the one that had to be told?
Every aspect of this story encompasses my own framework of beliefs. I believe that human beings can rise above the ordinary. I believe that love that has the power to literally move mountains and I believe that discrimination, for caste, creed, color, gender, religion or disability, is a scourge that we must actively work towards removing.

Your earlier collaboration with Karan, was not exactly a mushy story KANK but certainly a space that Dharma had been in, however, this time both of you collaborated on something “out of their box,” what was that experience like?
As clichéd as it might sound, the God’s honest truth is that the experience of working with Karan has always been wonderful. He has great respect for writing, is open, decisive, generous, demanding and approaches everything he does with passion and wit. But above all he never rests on his laurels and constantly strives to stretch himself. This is what has prompted him to take on something as demanding as My Name is Khan and I am so glad he chose me create the stage on which he can showcase his immense growth as a filmmaker. Not just that, he gave me complete freedom to tell Rizvan’s story from my heart and provided every support possible, including his own invaluable inputs, to make sure it was the best it could be.

Multiple geographies have been used in this story, some where you have spent a lot of time yourself, was that a conscious decision, to use locations in the Bay Area, etc,or was that more a product of the story flowing and deciding for itself, what location comes next?
Once the setting of the United States was settled upon. I was very keen to use San Francisco as a starting point. Yes, it is my favorite city and I have studied and lived there, but more so it was perfect for the quirky Rizvan and his quirky love story with Mandira. In San Francisco the love story of a man with Asperger’s and a single mom seems entirely natural. After that choice we moved into spaces the story demanded.

A lot of the “wronged Muslim and the good Muslim vs the bad Muslim,” films have come out in the recent past, how is this one going to differentiate itself?
Firstly, religion is not at the core of this film, humanity is and secondly, I would ask how many World War 2 films have come out in the recent past? How do they differentiate themselves? Different stories. Just because a character is of a religion or of a nationality it does not make his story the story of other characters and films before him.

What does the future hold in terms of project post MNIK?
I have worked on a couple of scripts for Viacom (Studio 18) that like Rizvan, are on a journey. The search for a director Both are very different from My Name is Khan.

Anything else about the whole MNIK experience that you would like to talk about?
I would request people that before heading to the theater please leave at home your notions about a Karan Johar film, about Shah Rukh Khan, about the Shah Rukh-Kajol pair and about supposedly similar themes in other films. Meet Rizvan and Mandira on screen with an open heart and allow Rizvan Khan to take you on the journey that is his life.

Whether it is in her firebrand performances as an actor, her directorial debut, in the way she chooses to live her life, the soul has to be fulfilled first, for one of India’s finest actors. Even if there was no more to Nandita, than being an actor, it would have been a cup full of talent, and life lived on her own terms. But there is more, the cup is overflowing, what with her Masters degree in Social Work, her work for the various social causes, the Chairpersonship of the Children’s Film Society of India and then last year saw her directorial debut in Firaaq.

The challenge was not so much in the making of the film, sure that was hard too, but it was more of the Bollywood systems obstacles that she faced, after the release of the film. There is a lot more to Indian films than Bollywood, but there are few artists that can match the talent, persistence and will of Nandita Das. Here we catch up with her and get some straight talk:

Your directorial debut Firaaq ( http://www.imdb.com & http://www.firaaqthefilm.com), has been a challenging process, does it now motivate you to direct more projects?
Definitely it has been challenging and stressful experience, but at the same time also very exciting and empowering, because you are able to tell your own story in your own way. As an actor you are at the mercy of the projects that come to you and that too you play a very small role in the whole film making process. So, yes I would like to direct more. I didn’t have a very pleasant experience with the producers and it was a downer, which took me some time to get over. Marketing of the film in today’s time, is as, if not more important, and you put your heart and soul into it and finally it boils down to how it’s promoted or marketed. Looking back, I’ve learned quite a few lessons and have now in fact begun thinking about my new project.

You did not cast yourself as an actor, in your directorial debut? Is that hopefully, going to change in the future?
It was sort of a conscious choice because I did envisage that it’s a first film, a fairly challenging project, five stories, five different main locations, shoe string budget, I shot the whole film in 30 days, I knew going in, that it would be challenging enough in many aspects. Somehow I didn’t even miss acting , cause being an actor the joy one got of working with other actors and having the opportunity to step back and look at performances and work on them with the actors, was in itself quite exciting. It’s not like I missed being in the film.

Has the market become more receptive to the Middle Ground films, that you were attempting to make, in India?
It may sound a bit of a cynical opinion, but I do think that we in India do a lot of safe playing. When we get to see world cinema all over and countries that make 5 or 10 or 20 films a year, are still pushing the boundaries and we claim to make a thousand films a year and still don’t experiment enough. Probably because commercial aspects always interfere with art and therefore at every level, whether it’s the producer, the exhibitor, the maker, somehow always  have a “safe zone” mentality. That is why there aren’t too many films that tell different stories or even tell a story differently. While audiences are looking for different stories and stories that push the boundaries, does get more interest, I wouldn’t say it’s the norm. There have been interesting films that have not done that well in the box office, or there have been films that are not so great and seem to be doing well commercially, so I don’t know what the rules are! I’ve always been out of it, but I do hope there will be more space for beyond the mainstream type of films, for independent cinema, for which the space is actually shrinking.

Is that because India is obsessed with this Gross Revenue model as opposed to the Return on a Budget Investment?
I don’t know because there are a lot of big films coming up as well, fifty crore films and over fifty crores, so it is very star driven, the initial box office collections, then there are the smaller films or the multiplex films, but even those are more sort of fun flicks. There aren’t that many films that are just telling stories of the common person. Where are those middle class stories? Much of it has become sort of a South Mumbai saga. Of course I am generalizing here, but most of the films we see tend to be of a certain kind. So not sure, sometimes I feel more pessimistic about it, then there are times you think you’ve got to be hopeful, when such a film does find that space, you also feel encouraged. And despite it all one can’t take a pessimistic view, because otherwise this space will shrink further. So both as an actor and with Firaaq, one has tried to continue doing the work one believes in. You hope there is a market for it, the more you do it the more doors open, and this also opens the door for other films in that space.  So even as an actor many of my films haven’t had big releases,  but many of them are stories that I feel need to be told. To each their own, I will continue doing films that I can connect or relate with or as an audience the onesI would like to see.

As an actor, you have a significant audience in the US and UK (and Canada too). Was Firaaq adequately marketed to them, cause I don’t think I saw it in the theaters here (in the US)?
The film went to more than 50 festivals, it won about 10 international awards and we got a Sales Agent right from the start, but unfortunately I had a bit of a tragic story with my producers, who for whatever reasons were not helpful to the Sales Agent. It’s been over a year and they haven’t even given the basic materials, that are needed to sell a film. As a result the sales agent who had been getting offers, despite the difficulties of selling serious foreign language films, they could not sell it anywhere. It has been frustrating and one does hope that when Financiers and Producers make films such as these, it is not only to increase their profile, get a decent film on a shoe string budget, get a few awards, but actually have faith in the project and go that extra mile and support the film maker. Recently Channel 4 (UK) bought it, but even that was such a struggle.

You’re the chairperson of the Children’s Film Society of India (CISF), stepping into that role from Nafisa Sodhi, what has been that experience like and also what lead to accepting that position?
This offer came to be sometime in Aug. My film had released in Mar (all 09), I took a bit of a break and then decided to start reading the scripts that have come to me as an actor. It came at a strange juncture and I was unsure whether I should even take it up since it was an honorary position and one can really do as much or as little as one wants. Knowing myself I knew I would dive into it and I also thought it’s a great opportunity to make a little difference, as there is such a dearth of children’s films. In a way it was a new area for me, but I also have experience in films, have worked with children before, I have gone to so many festivals and so I took this opportunity. The first assignment was to deal with the International Children’s Festival in Nov. 09. Suddenly I was on the other side of actually organizing a festival and it was interesting how one could pull out on all those experiences, which I had as an actor and a director, going to various festivals. I am also trying to make some systemic changes, beyond the individual, because my tenure is for three years, there are a lot of things one wants to do, when a system is put in place, whether it is rules and regulations of procuring films, obtaining good scripts, or marketing the films – we have over 250 films but they have not been marketed. There is a real dearth of indigenous content. There are so many television channels with children’s programme but if you really look at them, they are not truly meant for children. We are talking to various distributors, talking to Doordarshan, which has a large reach, and also encouraging good filmmakers to make films for children. Many filmmakers don’t want to even venture into this, cause they are like, “what’s the point, it will be stuck in cans”. So everything is interconnected but one is trying to encourage the makers, writers, animators, to contribute towards this. I’m getting a lot of support and a lot of enthusiasm, but there are many challenges.

Talk about the various social causes you are involved with, any one more important than others?
I feel it is always difficult to compete with issues, all are important in their own way.  Mainly it is about marginalization of people- victims of violence, those who don’t really get a voice, whether they are women, children or minorities. People are of primary concern, but one cannot ignore the environment. I want to learn more about that and do my little bit. I’m trying to narrow it down, but sometimes some things become more important than the other. When I was in Rajasthan shooting for  a film , the dearth of water makes you believe that is the most important issue for them . At another time ,when a case of rape occurs then one begins protesting about that. Basically all issues are of concern but one has to channel one’s energies to do the best one can. I don’t have a pet issue and often people say, why don’t you take one issue. But I feel in any case, all these issues are interconnected. While Firaaq for example is about sectarian violence, but you cannot see it in isolation. It also has to be seen in the context of class and gender divide.

Your upcoming projects as a director?
I have just begun the journey of thinking, so from there to the doing of it, is a long one. Some thoughts and ideas have just started germinating.  I’m also reading scripts written by other that have come to me to direct and I’m open to doing that too. It’s about finding what would really grabs my interest.

What are the odds of seeing you in a TV soap or a pure play Bollywood film?
As a person I don’t think I can do something that I don’t really believe in. I cannot separate what I would do for money and what I would do for my soul. For me everything needs to be done for the soul and earn what I can from that. And when your needs are low you don’t really need that much money, so  till now I have been fine. In terms of working for television soaps, to be honest I don’t even watch TV, so it not even as a viewer I can say I wish I was there. In fact when I do watch TV, it often agitates me. Of course not that one can generalize, as television in going to probably be the most important form of communication considering it has reached our bedrooms. So you never know, one would probably at some point do an interesting show which deals with certain concerns close to my heart, but nothing as of now.  And Bollywood, as an actor, if I haven’t done it in the last 13 years, why would I do it now?!

When the audiences (and a whole lot of them across the globe), left the screening of 3 Idiots, the character of Chatur Ramalingam, aka “Silencer,” was what stayed on for the longest time in memory. He had not been seen before on the Bollywood screen, but had become the scene stealer. His was no ordinary protagonist by Bollywood standards, his Hindi speech was the comic highlight of the film and his subsequent breakdown scene, made us sympathize with the character of Chatur. Let’s face it, we all have been Chatur’s at some point in our lives and the portrayal was truly the work of fine creativity, which had been evident to the American audiences earlier, in the immensely popular television series, THE OFFICE. Here is Omi Vaidya in his own words:

A little about what got you into the creative world?

I have to give credit to my mother because at one time when she was in Mumbai, she wanted to become an actress, but there were a lot of politics and her father would not let her do that, they were pretty conservative, so she channeled that into me, encouraged me to take part in plays, in the Palm Springs area, near Los Angeles, where we lived.  I worked out of the Marathi Mandal, so we did a lot of Marathi plays, this lead to entertaining people, friends and family when I was young. At age 14 I followed my brother to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and there I got better in acting. However, the parts that I was getting were kind of frustrating as an actor, so I got into film making and really enjoyed that process.  Followed this with going to NYU for film making.  Decided to come back to LA and pursue acting, since all that was required there, was to be a good actor and to audition. This lead to getting onto shows like THE OFFICE, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, CSI-LAS VEGAS, etc. Did a lot of advertisements, Kelloggs, McDonalds, The Yellow Pages, so this lead to a lot of people getting to know me.

So how did the Three Idiots happen?

While I became well known in Hollywood, the roles I would get were very stereotypical, the guy with the accent, the third or fourth guy, etc, and you can only do that so many different ways. So here I was vacationing in India looking at what other people’s projects were doing if there was anything different, one of my Michigan based friends, Supriya Kelkar, she’s a screenwriter and she works with Abhijeet Joshi, one of the staff writers at Vinod Chopra’s, she said that they are auditioning for people in LA and you should audition for them, I responded that I am in Mumbai so cannot audition in LA, plus Hindi is not my forte, since I grew up speaking Marathi in the house, along with of course English. She responded that they are actually looking for a NRI so you can go their office in Santa Cruz, Mumbai and just audition there. So I showed up there and they said “thik hai,” your referral is good and we have seen your work and Raju said you might be good as one of the three idiots. So they gave me the lines and said take an hour or two, learn the lines and then let’s do the audition, I responded right away that I can’t do that since it would be very hard for me to memorize the lines and speak them in Hindi. But he said, give it a try, so I went to the casting director, who looked at me, heard me speak a line or two in Hindi and said , “thank you and good bye.”  And I was like, great it was a good experience I got to meet Raju and it was nice. So I went home, lived the experience, with no expectations really. Anyway they called me the next day and said we have this NRI role and we haven’t yet written it all out as yet, but why don’t you take this Munnabhai lines, practice it, don’t worry about the diction, etc, just go in there and do it the way, NRI Omi would do it.  And I was like, Omi wouldn’t know Hindi very well, but would be very confident about what he’d say, just like how it was in my speech in the movie. So I think they really liked that audition and they also saw that I was very good at Improving, something that is quite common in the US, like in the OFFICE, you do have lines but a lot of comedy comes in what is not written. So I was on and they actually started to develop the character based on what I was doing, hence it fit me so well.

And from there?

I really worked hard on the character, did a second audition in New Mexico, since Vinod was there for this next film. After the second audition they told me, Omi you need to stop learning Hindi from whomever is teaching you, you need to stop watching Hindi movies, because we like your natural style and we don’t want you to be influenced by Bollywood. Also the instructions were not to exercise since the first schedule was the fat guy, so I put on 10-12 kgs, unfortunately the last Ladakh scene (the climax scene) was snowed in, so we couldn’t do the climax scene right then, then I had the next month to adjust my weight, quite a challenge, after which I did all the Bangalore scenes, with my lost weight, then gain the weight again to do the old man scene in Ladakh, with my head shaved. This was a month and a half before my wedding so my wife wasn’t very happy.  But I really gave myself to the role since it was a real good challenge I have had in a few years and I like challenges. I also just got the news that I’ve been nominated for a couple of screen awards. Not in my wildest dreams did I think that it would be this sort of recognition.

Still too early, since the ride has just started, but where do you see yourself in the future, splitting time between LA and Mumbai?

I’m going to take it as it comes, I know everybody wants to see more of my work on screen, but my wife is getting her PhD from UCLA right now, so I will be back there soon since she needs my support, so when the offers come and if they fit me, I’ll do them, I don’t want to be stereo cast, in the NRI bad guy, the thing about this role was that it was a dynamic role, it was not one dimensional.  Chatur did what he did cause he wanted to get a good job so that would bring him his happiness, it wasn’t just meanness for the sake of being mean. It wasn’t also just making fun of the NRI, it was an interesting role and I really enjoyed being that role. It became more real in that scene where I am drunk and crying at those guys and people were “Oh I understand why he feels the way he does.” I think a lot of people also related to the character, every school has their Chatur or many Chatur’s in their school. I think everyone has that selfish side and wants to be the one to get ahead at the cost of the competition.

Bollywood being what it is, odds are you will not be flooded with the same kind of roles?

I just want interesting roles. I want a challenge, that’s all I’m going to say. As an actor, I’m not sure they really know what is best for them, as far as the third party is concerned they come with roles where they feel they can place the actor. It’s actually not upto me, but for the directors and writers to match the script to the role. Hence I don’t think I could ever play Sharman’s role, so everyone has their niche and I have to find mine, so just because a role pays a lot of money or has a lot of glamour, doesn’t mean that I will take it, I will have to do something that fits me.  Casuse even the audience are going to be sick of seeing me as Chatur two to three times over, so to make my career more long lasting I will have to take more risks and try different challenges, within my niche. And if that means I fall flat that’s ok, cause life should be exciting and challenging.

How did your work in THE OFFICE, help you evolve as an actor?

A lot of people auditioned for that role, bigger Indian American actors, but I had watched the British show and knew about it, it wasn’t very popular at the time, they weren’t sure whether it would continue, people were not watching it that much, but I knew the style of the show, the camera, and at the time of the audition I decided to play that role to it’s entirety. I took a scarf, created a turban out of it and walked to the audition room wearing it on, which resulted in the other actors looking at me oddly, of course I was beyond caring and gave it my all and I guess they decided that was what was needed for the character and the show. It’s really exciting cause they don’t do any rehearsals on that show, so I would ask Steve, if he wanted to do any rehearsals and he was like, no, just let it be natural. It was probably one of the best productions in the US that I have been a part of. It was very comfortable. It’s probably because they shoot in the same location, it really feels like an office, everybody in the background is just checking YouTube and doing stuff, not really acting, but almost like being themselves in an office. This calming atmosphere helps not only the show, but also my performance on it. I think they might be showing it this week on NBC reruns, not sure, if it has something to do with 3 Idiots.

So have we lost you as a filmmaker for now?

An actor’s career is not based upon his/her doing, but more a reflection of the audience’s preferences. So filmmaking has been a passion and will always be so, and I do aspire to make a feature, since it is so much more challenging. As an actor, you come to the set 2-3 hours after everyone else and gets treated like royalty, sure has to do a good job, but it’s not as much a hard life as everyone else. No matter how good a job you do, it’s always been directed by somebody else and somebody else wrote it and you come in at the end and you get all the glamour, but the real credit goes to the writer and the director, so I really wish that I can be as good a director as Raju and a writer like Abhijeet. They really deserve all the credit and they are probably just giggling inside cause they know the film is a credit to them and they won’t get all the credit, but that is fine cause they are more grounded and live for their own satisfaction and actors live for other people’s satisfaction. So one day I will be making a film, but for now I will concentrate on acting, on becoming a better and more dynamic actor.

Finally what was it like being this NRI among all the Resident Bollywood Actors, on the set?

It was interesting cause I think basically I’m an unknown and everybody was like, who is this guy with these 3 Idiots. In a way it was good cause while I has seen the works of Aamir, the whole thing of being in their midst wasn’t so big a deal for me. This helped me to play on par with them, counter them. If they made a joke on set, I was able to joke back and they really enjoyed that because I think, they are so used to being treated with the royal touch, so to have someone treat them as regular folks , they really appreciated that and they would welcome me to their vanity van. That sort of personal touch you rarely, if ever, get in the US. This personal touch really helped the film, the acting and it really helped me, since I felt that I was one of them. It was also good cause the attention would be on them and I could concentrate on my acting without being conscious of who was watching me. I would like to add that Indians in general, you being one of them, are becoming truly global citizens and Bollywood films will continue to showcase that, since that is the society we live in today. Cause $2 mill on the first weekend came from the US and that’s 10% of what they made last weekend, a significant number. So Bollywood really has to play to the Indians in US,UK, Australia, etc, because their experiences are different and these will have to be captured accurately on the Bollywood screen, so when those roles come up, I will be there and if one day my Hindi becomes very good, then I aspire to play a regular Indian character in Bollywood films.

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‘3 Idiots’ Image Source: Sulekha.com

When the audience walked out of Madhur’s FASHION, last year, two performances were remembered most, those of Ashwin and Kitu. No mean task when you take a film that was full of topnotch acting and actors. And if that was not enough, Ashwin recently played the NRI Sikh to perfection in N. Chandra’s Yeh Mera India, a character that has never been portrayed accurately in the past, in Hindi films, was played to perfection. We get to know more about this “performer” and also his other passion, Salsa, catch him on the floor of Zenzi’s in Bandra, Mumbai.

Over to Ashwin.

What took a Doon School guy into showbiz?

Now that’s a question I don’t usually get asked. I guess you could say that Doon had a major influence in me becoming and actor. Common perception is that most boys from the school go into elite colleges and high profile jobs around the world, be it Banking, law, politics. Doon however, is a school that has always allowed it’s students to follow what they love doing. Being in a boarding school also gives you the chance to follow avenues that are not necessarily academically inclined. I was always a performer at heart and Doon School allowed me to carry that on. My parents were also supportive which always helps. I guess they realized a long time ago that a regular job would have made be miserable. After Doon I read English Literature at Hindu College Delhi University. Roshan Abbas who is a well known media figure in Bombay, was my senior  and while ragging me he decided to take me along  to join a theatre group in Delhi called Stage Door which he was part of. I did a number of plays with them over the next 3 years which cut in to my college time of course but was the education I actually wanted. After college I worked with a TV company for a brief period and also toyed with the idea of going to media school. I eventually applied to Drama Schools in the UK and when The Drama Studio London called to say that they’d accept me on a trial basis I happily packed my bags and left. I must have done something right because they kept me on and I completed the course. I stayed on for a few years in London doing the whole struggling actor thing and finally decided to come back in 2003 and give it a shot back home. I initially started out with commercials and then struck gold with being invited on to the ensemble cast of the Great Indian Comedy Show on Star One. It was a landmark show for Indian sketch comedy and was our Saturday Night Live. spent 2 wonderful years on it with brilliant actors, like Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Sheory, Suresh Menon, Purbi Joshi. Cannot begin to describe how mad it was. Films followed directly from that show.

In Fashion two of the most memorable performances were your’s and Kitu’s, how did the role come your way and what has it done for you, as far as the future project and performances are concerned?

Thanks. It’s great to hear that you find my performance in Fashion memorable. I got a call from Madhur Bhandarkar’s office asking if I could come in to meet with them regarding a role. They wouldn’t tell me much but when I got there I gathered the role was a little different. What they were most worried about was whether I would be comfortable playing a gay part. A lot of actors in Indian films get very negative about parts which they consider bad for their image. That doesn’t bother me in the least. Initially I was offered the Bollywood designer’s part (played by Harsh Chhaya) but then they said they’d rather have me play the role of Rohit, Priyanka Chopra’s friend and confidante in the film. I actually signed the contract on the day of my engagement putting everyone in a panic. What I liked about the role is that though Rohit’s character was obviously gay and quite camp, I was allowed to make him human and not  someone to laugh at as so often happens. Madhur let me do it my way on set and it’s great when a director trusts you to do that. it also helped that Priyanka was a fantastic professional to work with. It’s amazing how Fashion turned out to be such a big film.

I have definitely got much more recognition after Fashion. Earlier I used to be “that guy from Lage Raho Munna Bhai” I still am of course but my role in Fashion has cemented me in people’s minds as an actor to remember. As far as future projects are concerned there have been many calls and meetings but due to the strike a lot of projects were put on hold. I’ve done commercials and also concentrated on theatre this year since I don’t do enough of it. It’s always good to do stage from time to time. keeps you on your toes. I also have a flourishing career as a Voice Over professional and I’ve been quite busy with that this year

Talk a little about your passion for dance and salsa?

Salsa has been a huge part of my life for the last 11 years. I started learning it while I was in London and it just hooked me from day one. I love everything about it from the music,to the clubs and people. I have made some of my best friends through Salsa. I’ve travelled the world because of it and got to meet people who I otherwise would never have come across. I even taught my wife to dance Salsa so she could come with me to festivals. Our honeymoon believe it or not ended up being spent with 3000 people at the Greek Salsa Festival in Athens. We had an absolute blast. When I came back to Bombay, Salsa kept me afloat. I taught for a while but now I only teach at festivals. I moonlight as a Salsa DJ and play at clubs in Bombay every week. I’ve been asked to DJ at the Hong Kong Salsa Festival in February 2010 and am looking forward to that.
(please do check the article I wrote about Salsa – http://www.missmalini.com/2009/10/30/myth-1-real-men-dont-dance-salsa/)

What are the future creative projects that you would like to talk about?

As far as films go I’m in talks for some projects for next year. I’m most probably doing a part in a red Chilies film ironically directed by Roshan Abbass who I mentioned earlier. I’m also in Arshad Warsi’s home production, tentatively titled Kaun Bola where I play Boman Irani’s son. I’m doing a play called 1888-Dial-India which is directed by Anuvab Pal who wrote Loins of Punjab and I might be travelling abroad with another play Pune Highway directed by Rahul Da Cunha which is a thriller

The one thing you have done is play a lot of varied characters on screen, what is the single most important thing you look for when you read for a character?

Looking back at all the roles I’ve done it’s amazing how varied they’ve been. I’ve played a Flamboyant designer (Fashion), nasty son (munna bhai), a deceptive boss (Metro), a loose cannon business man (Ek Chaalis ki last local), a wicked doctor (I see You), a Sardar (Yeh Mera India) and a mad Russian doctor (Quick Gun Murugan). What is important to me is not necessarily the length of a role but how important the character is to the film. Is it going to be memorable to the audience ? That’s what I take into account. My part in Lage Raho Munna Bhai was only 3 scenes but the recall value is practically the same as Fashion. I also like to see where I can take characters.  I played Amarjit Singh’s character in Yeh Mera India as a sikh without a Panjabi accent as I don’t believe all sardar’s talk with a panjabi one. Dr Django’s character in Quick Gun was initially supposed to be American but I asked Shashanka Ghosh whether I could play him as a Russian. He was all for it and it turned out to be great fun. Also because my skin colour is so fair I can slip between nationalities fairly easily (if you excuse the obvious pun) which makes it all the more interesting as an actor. In my play 1-888-dial India I play 5 different characters ranging from Indians to Americans

The Universe is made up of three kinds of humans, a) those that go with the tide representing most of us, b) those that try and face up to the tide, a lot of them get washed away with the flow and then c) there are those who stand up against it and by sheer dint of their staying and persevering power, turn the tide towards them. Director/actor/producer Rajat Kapoor is that minority who belongs to the third category, the tide of traditional Bollywood and the newer audiences are turning towards him, and have been for the last few years. He is the ultimate against the flow individual in Bollywood today and now the flow is going his way and more power to him. This FTII graduate, represents the true spirit of independent filmmaking in India today. His time is here and now. We catch up with Rajat as his talks about his upcoming film, Raat Gaye Baat Gaye.

A little about what Raat Gaye Baat Gaye is all about?
You will get the synopsis on the net (www.raatgayibaatgayi.com) of course so I am not going into that- what it essentially is about, is marriage! I think- a relationship over the years- there may be good days or bad days (like the one in the film), but the key to sustaining a relationship is to go beyond those days… in a way it is a continuation of Mixed Doubles (I wanted to give it a subtitle of A-MORAL TALE, like we had in Mixed Doubles).

What kind of films does your production company strive to make and get to the audience?
My endeavor is to make the kind of films that I believe in. This is what I would largely call independent films. For me, independent means it is free of market forces, of the passing fads of the day, independent in spirit- whatever the genre.

With global recession on us, do you think Mumbai is finally waking up to the lower cost/high concept hence easier return on investment as opposed to the big budget and high risk, model?
This happened about two and a half years back- before the recession actually. This is a model that some of us have been crying hoarse for years. Finally I think the producers took notice of it in 2005-06, when some of these low budget films went on to make big bucks. Then they realized that this could be a profitable model.
Recession actually worked against this- as people started looking back at the superstar formula films. But that again, is a phase. Independent cinema is here to stay for good.

You seem to work with a core team, Saurabh Shukla, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, any particular reason for that?
Well, there is a definite comfort level. But then you don’t really cast an actor in a role just because he is your friend, you can not risk a film like that. Luckily for us, Ranvir and Vinay are such versatile actors that they manage to fit in a variety of roles.

On your upcoming projects as a director, producer and actor?
As an actor there is Ramu’s RANN, Saurabh  Shukla’s I AM 24, Sharat Katariya’s brilliant adaptation of a Mid Summer Night’s dream, called for the time being MOCKTALE or JOSH-E-JAWANI, Aparna Sen’s ITI MRINALINI- and a few others.
As a director I have just finished my film called either A RECTANGULAR LOVE STORY or FATSO for the time being. Both titles may change. It has Ranvir, Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Neil Bhoopalam and Gunjan Bakshi.

Overall sense of how the environment in the Indian film industry has changed for someone such as yourself, who has more than paid his dues, gone against the flow and now the flow is going your way and well deserved on that ?
I am grateful for the change. Things are very different now than they were in 2004 when Raghu Romeo was released.
Also, what has happened now, is that with the coming of multiplexes, all films at least have the possibility of a release. This is what we always wanted- a foot in the door. Once you have a release, it is fair play- if the audiences like it, there is every chance that the word of mouth could make something of your independent project…
It has not only helped me- but I feel today it is much easier for a first time filmmaker to make a film and get it to an audience. And I thank God for that…

What else can you call someone who is an actor, a singer, a Stand Up performer and if that is not enough, also an entrepreneur. Ash Chandler, defied logic by showing up as a NRI in Mumbai, India, some years ago, the showing up was not where logic got topsy turvy, but how he embraced the city, which instantly made him one of it’s own, is a path no NRI artist before, and few after, have traversed. As if having all of these creative talents were not enough for one person, the craving to have a slice of pizza, as opposed to a whole pizza and also the desire to bring Italian food in India, out of the 5 stars and into the reach of the average Mumbaikar, made him start a very successful Italian bistro in Bandra, Mumbai, and of course his other love, the bikes, he also started a company that customized bikes, the Mumbai Motorcycle Company.

So here we get to spend some time with Ash, as this artist who pioneered Stand Up in India, takes some time off from his LA trip to talk to us. Over to Ash:

When I look at you, you represent that most seamless adjustment case of a person who grew up, for the most part in the US, shows up in Mumbai and fits right into the scene there, how did you accomplish that?

Interestingly if I had tried I don’t know what the situation would be, I took a three week vacation, was living in Santa Monica at that time, showed up in Mumbai and second week that I was there I ended up getting a record deal with Magnasound. I also ended up performing at a club in Mumbai called Jazz by the Bay, and I was like discovered by India. For years prior to that in LA it had been a struggle, and then suddenly in India the newspaper says I’m the first person to have an English Language Stand Up in India. So it was a mix of opportunities and an interesting time for me and I ended up getting all this work there, so it was just a good fit.

Well let’s get back in time, what got you into showbiz, and I say that cause you obviously do multiple things, stand up, singing, acting, almost all aspects of showbiz?

Being a son of a Prof in Psychology and an Immigration Lawyer, education came easy and I ended up graduating high school a year earlier, and then I ended up getting a theater scholarship, it’s something I’ve always gravitated towards, I was in theater even when in school.We wrote skits and did theater workshop with all the stalwarts of the theater world and that was a valuable experience and I was also making like $60 a show and we did something like 200 shows a year. This lead to doing Stand Up, put my first band together and then the six years in LA and then the last ten in India and now spending splitting my time between LA and India.

I’ve seen you in Shikhar and My Bollywood Bride amongst others, Stand Up, Singing….?

And I’ve done Television, The Man’s World Show, anchored with Hrajesh Virjee. Where we did an interview with folks such as Will Smith to a bevy of Bollywood actors. So that makes it three years in Television and 6 films in India.

What is your preference, as in I want to do THIS in THIS city..?

Well doing Stand Up in the States is more fun for me because there is no uphill battle of educating the audience cause it is a performance, still remember in one of my India shows this lady came up to me at the end of my Stand Up routine and said, “Your were really good, we didn’t even miss the PERFORMER!!!” So it was one of those things where they were not even used to the idea that Stand Up is a performance. Acting is more depending on the project and the unit you are with, as opposed to geography, since every unit is a microcosm in itself. I’ve had some great experiences and some shitty experiences in both the East and the West.

In the films that I did see you in, didn’t get the impression that Mumbai had used all of your talents, it was more a case of “he is a comic, let’s put him there and that’s it?”

Let me put it this way, I’ve been in this industry for about twenty years now, had my struggles and tried to make the most of what has come to me, but as an actor I would be ungrateful if I said that…I mean there is that ideal circumstance, every one is looking to find their Martin Scorsese who will put them in fifty films and really capitalize on all their various shades. End of the day, truth of the matter is My Bollywood Bride is a film I had to fight for. They said you’re playing a rickshaw driver, you’re a NRI, I actually shaved my head, gained some weight, went to the director’s house and he said that “sahib ghar mein nahin hain,” so I had to go and convince them for it. So I think they let me do my thing and same thing for John, in Shikhar, he came to my restaurant in Mumbai, said he wanted me to play a designer but not the Bollywood kind, hence he didn’t want to go to the typical Bollywood actor, he needed someone who can make the audience believe that he has traveled the world and can be convincing. So the point I’m trying to make is that yes I would love to meet that director who gives me a lead role and let’s me play different shades I would love that, but as an actor I’m very grateful for the parts that I have been given. I mean Bollywood, at the end of the day, despite the kind of work that I’ve managed to get, is seeped in nepotism. I would say on a conservative estimate, three quarters of Bollywood is second or third generation film industry people. Plus the way the world works is “oh you’re working with X so you must be a good actor,” so you never know whether in LA or Mumbai, where the next big thing comes along.

Now you are creeping back into LA?

It’s funny when I was initially here, I did end up doing a few things here and there which did end up with me getting my SAG credits and eligibility. Then you show up in India and the adulation is great and you are, there I say, one of the 500 people whose opinion counts for something. As an actor though it is limiting and I don’t blame the industry for the kind of films it churns out, the masses need it, so that is all good, but as an actor you want to try out different things, do a little bit more serious work and all that. So that’s primarily the reason I’m trying to spend more time here in LA and seeing what kind of work can be found here. Managed to get an episode and am in the process of getting representation here. The ideal life would be to have one foot here and one there, because for whatever reason I’ve fallen in love with India. I love Mumbai for whatever it is, it’s given me a life, a name, some great friends and I basically just like it out there. But the last three months have been ideal, I’ve been spending a week in India, two weeks here, still have my gigs going on so it’s been a pretty wonderful life that way.

So multiculturism comes easy to you?

That’s right my dad is Punjabi, my mom Tamil, I’ve done a film in the South, called Little John that was in Hindi, English and Tamil and I am proficient in all three of them, the only guy on the set!

Tell us about your music?

My music is available on iTunes, if you want to give it a listen, it’s called Husn.  Have a new album in English and Spanish, have done playback for a film by Saurabh Shukla, in which I’ve sung a Nautanki song, even in Shikhar I have a playback song, the Vaga song is mine. I have three different bands in India that I tour with and when these musician play with me they are all called the Ash Trays.

DO SCRIPTWRITING TECHNIQUES AS TAUGHT BY WESTERN TEACHERS, PRIMARILY WITH HOLLYWOOD AS A FOCUS, WORK IN INDIA?

Throwing light on this is writer and director and a former Senior Faculty – Screenwriting Department, Whistling Woods International, Sanjay Talreja.

Sanjay has taught filmmaking and scriptwriting in Canada, the US, and lately, in India. Sanjay has worked as a writer, editor and is an accomplished filmmaker himself. He has made numerous documentaries, one of which was funded partially by the Soros (later Sundance) fund.

In 2005, Sanjay wrote and directed a documentary for the National Film Board of Canada, Cricket and The Meaning of Life; in 2007, he produced the `Manufacturing Dreams’ episode for the India Reborn series made by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

He is also working on various scripts.

Over to Sanjay:

Are the skill sets one learns about scriptwriting in the West from folks like Syd Field applicable in the context of the Indian film industry? I’m wondering about the current scenario, not where we want to take our film industry but where it stands now?
They are useful but the question is how useful they are. One can’t blindly transpose, because finally a script and a story arises from a cultural context. It comes from experience, it comes from people’s lives, and it comes from what is happening around you. In other words, a story comes from the world you know and live in. It seems obvious to state that Hollywood or the US is not the world that Indians live in. We live in an Indian world and Indian stories and scripts have to respect all aspects of that. So a writer cannot merely take American ideas of the way stories have to be told and think these ideas, techniques, issues of characterisation, pace, rhythm, emotion be blindly applied.

Unfortunately, in the last twenty, twenty-five years, scripts coming from mainstream Hollywood have put the accent on speed, on uni-dimensional characters. Script writing has become somewhat simplistic elements by doing such things as hooking the audience in so many pages, by stating that by so and so page you should have the end of Act 1, etc…

I think all of that is useful, but one can’t use it just as a formula, because finally, mechanics cannot be applied to telling complex stories. That is sounding abstract but people experience lives differently in different parts of the world and scripts have to reflect that reality.

So the question is how and why things work across cultures and what can be carried over. Arguably, what people like Syd Field have done is talk about story in general and they have drawn upon an American cultural sensibility in doing so. Unfortunately, many people have assumed that these notions will be applicable all over.

But script works differently in distinct parts of the world. Hollywood has global pretensions for a long, long time. For a long time, a lot of folks in Hollywood thought that their film language was universal film language and therefore their techniques, stories, acting performances were the yardstick for everyone.

Indian producers did not suffer from this disease until very recently. They made films almost exclusively for Indian audiences – songs, multiple characters, a whole bagful of emotions and sentiments, masala elements with a bit of this and that, logic that does not conform to western logic  –  these were all elements that Indian films used, not pretending or even caring if the films were meant for a worldwide audience. But these worked for Indian audiences because these elements sprang from our lives and sensibilities.

In fact, it has been proved that even those within North America who tried to more or less blindly follow what they understood from Syd Field, those people have failed. I think Syd Field has argued himself that people have been silly in the way they interpret the book.

Let’s take the argument the other way. You have someone like a Shekhar Kapur who had his training in India and now makes films for the world. So can our scripts and the techniques that are Indian, appeal to the West, or at least appeal to the audience that is outside of Indians?
Absolutely, not only our scripts, but an Italian, a Japanese… any script is capable of doing that. Audiences all over the world are curious how other people live, what makes them tick… if a story is well told, even if it comes from a different place or sensibility, people will take the trouble to understand it. It is the story that has to take them along.

For example, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali was a small film about local issues and the lives of ordinary people, but the story had a universal resonance – it was about children, families, changing circumstances, poverty, how people were trying to cope with a rapidly altering world. Add to that, was the fact that it came from a director who was acutely conscious of a different sense of rhythm and a different sense of time… and the film resonated across the world.

And the same applies to many filmmakers – you look at the work of Kurosawa, many Iranian directors, look at a film like Central Station, in many respects a brilliantly written, directed and acted film, a very Brazilian story but which nevertheless works for audiences the world over. So, yes I think our stories can appeal to a very wide, maybe global audience. However, if one seeks to merely make a Hollywood style product and story by just putting an Indian setting, I’m pretty sure it is not going to entirely work.

Someone like a Ram Gopal Verma has said that people who get trained in educational institutions in scriptwriting and directing, have a hard time adapting to the real world, your thoughts on that?
There are a lot of great writers who have never been to film or writing school.

But we live in a totally media saturated world. Because of the plethora of films and the sheer volume of films, many of which seem like clones of each other and then disappear into a great void, it’s become increasingly evident that films need to be written by writers who have writing skills but are also grappling with the language, history of cinema. And the best place to get that knowledge is to go to a film or writing school.

Almost immediately, students learn that story telling is not about, `I have a brilliant idea and I can do it myself’; and they understand when they actually get down to doing it, writing a script is very hard work. They find out that translating a concept to a script is almost like sweating blood.

Students become acutely aware that their stories need to go through numerous stages in order to produce a final script. They discover that even as the writer needs to preserve his or her original idea, a script cannot be written in the first draft or it doesn’t just come out of your mouth. They realise that ti’s not the first thing that you write, but perhaps the hundredth thing that you write that will make the script come together. After all, most  writing is actually re-writing.

So I think structured teaching is good because it forces the student to grapple with the process of how stories are made. Many students end up saying, “I did not realize that stories spring from a kind of mythological framework”, or end up realizing that there are some genre conventions which are very important to understand.

After a good writing program, a lot of students actually walk away thinking that, yes, it is possible to write a script. Without that knowledge, without the benefit of the experience of learning from the successes and mistakes of others, it can seem like a very hard mountain to climb.

Once students learn something about the craft, they can then focus their energies on telling the stories that are important to them. Otherwise, without that knowledge, they end up almost having to reinvent the wheel.

You cannot merely become a writer because you love cinema, you cannot become a director because you love cinema. Everybody loves cinema – it is the most important art form of the last one hundred years – but you have to have something to say. And then you have to work at getting the skill to say it…

So back to the question – the answer is, yes, one can learn from the gurus and from writing programs but one has to eventually remember that scriptwriting can be learned but it cannot be taught. Finally, people have to learn it on their own. And it can only be learned by doing it over and over again. But writing cannot be imitated, copied, transposed, no formulae can be applied to writing.

When you were in India teaching this time, who were the writers, from the Indian system who really impressed you, as in with their breadth of knowledge, their mastery of the craft, etc?
This is a hard question since there are so many brilliant people working in India and naming a few would mean ignoring so many others. I can only speak of Hindi cinema because I don’t know too much about other Indian cinemas although they are equally vibrant and dynamic. Names that quickly come to mind are K Abbas, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar. Of the more recent ones, there’s Vishal Bhardwaj not only through his conversations, but through his superb films; there’s Anjum Rajabali – not only do the films he has written have political and social urgency and his understanding of writing is phenomenal, but his ability to explain the craft of writing to make students understand is also incredible; there’s Jaideep Sahni who has his finger on the pulse of a rapidly changing country… there’s Rensil D’Silva… the list could be very long.

The unfortunate part is that many not so big name writers seem to have their arms twisted to write certain things in a predictable way. One big reason is that  a lot of the producers seem to be so seduced by grand locations, big stars, choreography of the shots, of the cinematography, the lighting – making the film look very visually sophisticated … if the producer is caught in so many optics and so many big-budget decisions, he often does not want to take big risks in story telling and there is pressure on the writer to give the same old, same old. So you end up with all the glitz, glamour but no story. More and more so, audiences are responding by not coming in to watch these kinds of stories. How much icing can you eat if there’s no cake?

Until very recently in India, we never had a formal scriptwriting education, so how did people get by, how did so many films get made, stories told and what was the process till now?
People have been telling each other stories for thousands of years. India, like many other countries of the world, draws upon a diverse and ancient tradition of story telling. Our lives are full of myths, fables, of lived experiences. Writers instinctively draw upon this repertoire of stories. Cinema is relatively new, approximately hundred and ten years old so there are a whole lot of stories to draw from and people have always been able to do that.

Apart from myths, fables, people also led full and vigorous lives. For instance, in the nineteen forties and fifties, many Indians participated in the freedom struggle and were attempting to understand life in a newly independent country. In this respect, writers were like other people of that period -  really engaged in life. Writers had something to say and there were audiences there to receive it. Audiences wanted and received a cinema that reflected their own lives, but they also wanted it in a form that was Indian. That is, they wanted drama, suspense, action, song. Even if they were making mass cinema for large audiences, film-makers and writers  — from Raj Kapoor or Vijay Anand, from Bimal Roy to K. Asif – were telling stories and tales grounded in India.

But the most important point I keep returning to is writers have to have something to say. And that something has to come from living, reading, thinking, reflecting. If all your life has been spent watching movies or television or playing video games, and if you’ve really not experienced the world, if you’ve not lived a full life, then very likely you are forming your views from what you’ve seen on screen. Audiences all over the world now are rejecting that, or at least they want to watch a much more sophisticated retelling of that.

Let us talk about television writing in India, what’s your take on where it is now?
Whatever little I saw did not interest me much. It felt like a rehash, where you watch one and you’ve seen them all. The majority of the soaps are about the anxieties of a society that is being rapidly transformed. And they concentrate on the family dynamics in that situation. On the one hand, there’s space because TV soaps seem to explore something that has rarely been explored before – the institution of the Indian family – and asking questions of the very nature of the family.

On the other hand, one sees such an idealized and mythologized version of the family that it actually reeks of great dishonesty. While we are asking questions which we should be, we are not addressing them in an honest fashion.

So I’m confused as to whether any progress has been made. I would say that in fact the older stuff like Karamchand, Nukkad, Buniyad, those programs had much more diversity in content, in terms of representing different classes, different experiences.

Since you are also a director, this is a question I had asked your friend Rensil D’ Silva, why this obsession with directors to write, especially when their forte is directing as opposed to writing, more in Mumbai or India that we have this?
It puzzles me greatly – the writer doesn’t say I’m a director, then why would a director want to say I’m a writer? I think the issue is a lot of people are not willing to let go. Going back to what I said earlier, merely because you have an idea, doesn’t make you a writer. Having an idea is great, but the question is what do you do with the idea?

A concept that there are two gangsters and they are on the run from the law, does that make you a writer? Or, have you only come up with the concept?

If you’ve actually hammered the script out, gone through the stages, worked through different drafts, deeply contributed to it’s development, done very, very serious work on the dialogues, if you’ve done all those things, as opposed to merely giving feedback, then yes, you are writing and directing. If not, let go of that territory, it’s not your business and not your skill. You’re not showing you are a gigantic intellectual by saying I’m a writer.

You’ve done a fair share of documentaries, gotten funded by the Soros Fund, the Sundance Fund, National Film Board of Canada. Being a documentary filmmaker, is almost being like a journalist. Does documentary film-making  help you in writing stories for features?
I think so. There are a lot of wonderful people working in features who have not done documentary and they have produced amazing stories. Also, there’s no denying that audiences are looking for fun, fantasy and escapist stuff, but I think they are also looking for some measure of realism.

I’m personally very interested in taking more or less real life events, and subtly adding many elements of drama to them. This realism doesn’t have to be mundane, grim or pessimistic, but my view is that cinema has to show peoples lives and be respectful of people – especially the contradictory, the paradoxical nature of the way we live; of our joys and sadness, of our ups and downs, how we take two steps forward and one step back, how we meander sideways, how we struggle through existence trying to make sense of the world. Also, in some sense, the real is stranger than fiction…  Reality excites me way more, and I believe we should be able to reflect some of that in our cinema.

Any script ideas that are in development stage for a feature?
I do have some projects in development. One is a more or less finished script which is set partly in the US and partly in India and explores the life of an ordinary immigrant and all the drama that goes into the life of that ordinary person. I also have a fairly well developed treatment of a thriller set in India. Finally, I am writing something that looks at the world we live in today, the world of terrorism, victims, of migration, identity, loss, nostalgia…

Sanjay Talreja is NOT on facebook.
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He can be contacted at stprojects11@gmail.com