Adventures of a Writer

I have been writing books and screenplays for a while and it's been a process of learning and re-learning. In this interview with Namrata of Kitaab.org , I share my experiences with regard to writing scripts, pitching and book to screen adaptations.  Team Kitaab: Your career began as a business journalist before you transitioned to fiction writing. How has your background in journalism influenced your approach to writing screenplays and adapting books for the screen? Adite Banerjie: Journalism has shaped my career as a writer – both in non-fiction and fiction. First of all, by working on news stories, specially those with a human interest angle, I got the opportunity to observe first hand various situations and events and how they impact lives. It provided me with invaluable experience of the entire spectrum of issues that shape, impact and change people’s lives. At some subconscious level this stayed with me. So, when I started writing fiction, my journalism experie...

If there is one movie that is perhaps the Godfather of all dirty-cops-and-gangsters movies, it's gotta be The Departed by Martin Scorsese. Interestingly, it was an adaptation of the hit Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs . While the latter was itself a very popular film, it may not be wrong to say that The Departed has surpassed it by acquiring near cult status.   So, it was with this in mind I wanted to watch Vikram Vedha which is a remake of the Tamil film of the same name. The original film starring Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi was a huge blockbuster and it was no wonder that the filmmakers were keen to remake it in Hindi with Saif Khan and Hrithik Roshan in the roles of Vikram and Vedha. However, the Hindi remake failed to recreate the magic of the original. Even though the film is supposedly an exact copy, made by the very same filmmakers who directed the original.  While there has been a bunch of theories about why the Hindi version failed, the consensus has been that "...

The Hindi movie industry is one of the most prolific film industries in the world. According to available figures on the Internet, revenue collections in 2019 stood at Rs 19000 crore. This includes revenues earned from films, television, OTT, etc. Over the last couple of years, thanks to the pandemic, movie viewing in theatres has seen a significant decline. People are preferring to watch streaming channels where there are scores of movies and web series to choose from at the press of a remote button.  2022 has seen more movies releasing in theatres but it seems like audiences are not returning as fast as the filmmakers would like them to. So much so that a string of big budget films including the much awaited Aamir Khan starrer Lal Singh Chadha has had a shockingly disastrous opening at the box office. Something that would be unthinkable for a mega star of his stature. Akshay Kumar, another mega star has had an equally tepid release in Raksha Bandhan .  It's not as if all fi...

Sometime back I had done a post for Storizen magazine on how screenplay writing differs from novel writing. A script or screenplay is essentially a roadmap that guides a filmmaker towards his/her destination of putting together a film. And for that reason, there are a few rules that the writer needs to follow:  1. Descriptions need to be minimal and offer the filmmaking team with just the precise details about location, ambience, mood and action.  2. Emotions need to be actionable. Or, something that an actor can act out.  3. Scripts change with inputs from other members of the crew. And a writer has to be willing to make changes to her original ideas. You can read the full post here. In that article I had not talked about screenplay formatting - which is a very important aspect of writing screenplays. The screenplay format - which demands that action lines or descriptions be written from one end of the page to another and the dialogues are centered in the middle - has ...

Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash Newbie writers who are eager to start a career in screenwriting often ask me: I wish to become a screenwriter. How do I go about it?  Every writer's journey is unique and what works for me, may not necessarily work for you.  Like every journey, in this one too you may come across many different paths to get to your destination. The important thing is to get started with a rough map and then figure out the milestones on the way. So here are some tips...   Learn the Craft It all begins with learning the craft. So let's not jump the gun. And this is the fun part. If you wish to be a screenwriter, you need to understand how movies are written. The best way to do this is by watching a lot of films. Mindfully. So you have a bunch of films that you love. Those are the ones where you should start...not simply to be entertained but to understand the writing behind it. Take notes on what happens in a scene. How one scene flows into another....

  If I'm absolutely honest I'm often discouraged by just how difficult the screenwriting journey is. Staying positive over months and years, slogging away at scripts, pitching producers and agents and dealing with rejections can be exhausting. I have often been tempted to throw in the towel. What has stopped me from doing it?  Well, the sheer compulsion of writing a story that's visual and visceral. 7 Lives was one such script. It is based on the true story of a young girl whose parents want to overcome the pain of losing their most precious daughter by remembering her in a way that would give meaning to her life and theirs. They wanted to donate her organs but alas their wish was never to be fulfilled.  When Runjiv J Kapur, my filmmaker friend, approached me to write the script based on this story for a short film, I was excited but also a bit scared. Would I be able to do justice to the story? For me, 7 Lives will always be special. Not only because it was a subject tha...