NL Hafta

On Awful and Awesome this week, we bring to you from the archives Abhinandan in conversation with Sabrina Dhawan, who has written Monsoon Wedding, co-written Kaminey, Ishqiya and Rangoon and been a consultant for Haider. She also teaches screenwriting at New York University. The movie Monsoon Wedding shot her to stardom at a very young age in her career. They talk about the factors that make a film successful, what works and what does not. Films like Kaminey and Ishqiya did well at the box office while Rangoon didn't. Abhinandan questions what could be the reason behind a film's fall and success. Sabrina says: "Unlike writing a book, a film is an intensely collaborative medium. So the writing is one part of it. Even the directing is one part of it. Any one element can sink a film. Eventually, it is a good story that is well told. Because you can have a good idea but if it isn't well told, then that doesn't work. That said, even a great script is not director-proof, it's not casting-proof." Furthermore, she says it is a "miracle" if a movie does well because that means everything came together. Talking about the screenwriting course that she teaches at New York University, she discusses how screenwriting is a "craft" similar to carpentry or plumbing. She acknowledges that one needs to have stories to tell, nobody can teach you that. "What I am teaching them is how you actually craft your idea, a lot of it is also teaching them how to externalise or dramatise something because unlike a book, a script is a story told in pictures." Regarding Monsoon Wedding, she recalls the time when she pitched the idea to a bunch of executives. Her idea was appreciated but the executives felt the movie wouldn't be commercially viable. "But we made that film, super low-budget and it ended up finding audiences throughout the world. This taught me a really important lesson, that it's really important to write the story you want to write and write it as truthfully and authentically as possible,” she adds. Abhinandan asks about her challenges when she rewrote the script of Monsoon Wedding from film to theatre. Initially, she thought that since the film is a musical, it would only be a change in formatting because a film and play have different formats. "But it doesn't work like that at all. Going from screen to stage, the fact that you don't have a camera changes everything. You can't cut to location. Of course with sets and production like how many transitions and how do you transition, you can't just keep coming back to the location." Sabrina mentions her love for Zoya Akhtar’s film Luck By Chance. "I thought it was brave and incredibly compassionate. It had this great look and was very satirical and very dark. And the fact that it was made by someone who is an insider in that world and to look into the perspective of an outsider is incredible.” Other films lined up in her list of favourites are Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Deewar. Tune into Awful and Awesome for more!