Bollywood’s most enduring writer-director jodis reveal what makes them tick as a team
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 29, 2018)

DIRECTOR: MEGHNA GULZAR
WRITER: BHAVANI IYER

Meghna Gulzar admits that the industry needs more writers like Bhavani Iyer, who agreed to collaborate on the story and screenplay of Raazi even before they had a producer on-board. The duo came together in May 2016 but were writing another script then — one based on Gulzar’s short stories. “I did not know if Raazi would happen at the time, but still asked Bhavani if she’d write the film with me. We wrote a 30-page story culled from the novel, Calling Sehmat, which went on to become the screenplay. While we were mid-way through that, Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions came aboard and the rest is history,” Meghna says.

Bhavani has also co-written Meghna’s next, a biopic on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. “Our collaborations are a joyride because we feed off each other’s energies seamlessly. It’s like a conversation, the sequences are written in a breeze and the comfort level we share makes the journey enjoyable. It makes me feel so good as it’s so productive,” Meghna says.


DIRECTOR: ASHWINY IYER TIWARI
WRITER: NITESH TIWARI

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and her filmmaker-writer-husband Nitesh Tiwari have been working closely since the last 15 years building brands and collaborating on some of the country’s best ad campaigns, including Kaun Banega Crorepati and Indian Idol. The duo has also won the Cannes Lions Awards as Art Director and Copywriter. “We are team players with no egos and that’s what works best for us. We know each other’s strengths and work collectively for the good of the film and not our own interests,” reasons Ashwiny, whose Nil Battey Sannata and Bareilly Ki Barfi have been co-written by Nitesh, as also her upcoming drama with Alia Bhatt.

“It’s important to share a comfort level and respect that,” she asserts. Nitesh, who directed the Aamir Khan wrestling drama Dangal, believes it is equally important that they share the same vision despite having different points of view. “Sometimes, there are healthy arguments and sometimes the writing translates into a different visual, but the soul of the story remains intact,” Ashwiny asserts.

She points out that her favourite collaboration with Nitesh is her last release, Bareilly Ki Barfi, since it was a very different world for them. “Nitesh and I were looking at the story from a female and a male gaze. The film ended up having both.”


DIRECTOR: AANAND L RAI
WRITER: HIMANSHU SHARMA

Having collaborated on five films — Strangers, Raanjhanaa, Tanu Weds Manu, Tanu Weds Manu Returns and the upcoming Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Zero — Aanand L Rai reveals that his award-winning writer Himanshu Sharma is “the laziest writer in the world and given a choice, Himanshu would stop writing and take up dreaming as a full-time job”. “If I don’t give him a timeline, he will never give me a script. And while we are filming one movie, he’s already discussing another idea,” laughs Aanand.

The filmmaker recalls that while they were filming Raanjhanaa, his writer was more interested in another idea which developed into Tanu Weds Manu. “We both talk too much and he’s always trying to distract me. Even now, during Zero, we’ve been discussing many new ideas.”

Aanand says that ‘berozgaari’ (unemployment) brought the duo together for the first time in 2003, but he’s now found a younger brother for life. “Himanshu sketches out a basic plot for me and within a week we’ve made up our minds to turn it into a film. That’s the way we do it! I always give Himanshu a sense of freedom,” Aanand says.


DIRECTOR: ZOYA AKHTAR
WRITER: REEMA KAGTI

This duo’s professional history stands out in the sense that it is more symbiotic than their contemporaries. Reema, who is a filmmaker herself, has co-written Zoya’s Dil Dhadakne Do, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and the upcoming, Ranveer Singh-starrer Gully Boy, while Zoya has penned the screenplay and story of Reema’s last directorial, Talaash. “I met Zoya while working on Kaizad Gustad’s cult comedy, Bombay Boys, 20 years ago. We were both assistant directors on the film and our collaborations have been solid ever since,” Reema recalls. “I prefer to write with her because we work well together. Brainstorming involves throwing up ideas till something clicks and our individual strong points work great together,” the writer-filmmaker explains, describing the process as “fun and fruitful”.

Before the release of Talaash, Zoya had pointed out, “Our politics is the same. Our values are the same. Both of us find the same thing vulgar. We do have different styles of filmmaking and we realise that to end up with a good idea, you need to power through 20 bad ones. There’s no epiphany waiting around the corner. The only way to do this is by talking about it incessantly, till we know we’ve got it right.” The duo joke that their producers would be happier if they didn’t work together as they often fail to meet deadlines.

What’s the way forward then? “Our partnership has grown organically but the day we ‘have to’ work together, we won’t. ‘Have to’ is quite a problem. The ‘want-to-do’ phase is pretty good,” Reema reasons.


DIRECTOR: SHOOJIT SIRCAR
WRITER: JUHI CHATURVEDI

Juhi Chaturvedi who has written Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor, Madras Cafe, Piku and October, confides that no matter how “crazy” she sounds sometimes, her filmmaker friend is always able to see her thoughts in context. “I guess our IQ levels are equal so I don’t have to explain myself too much and that’s comforting,” Juhi had revealed in an earlier interview.

Shoojit who never starts a film without a bound script sticks to 95 per cent of what is written leaving scope for few improvisations. “It takes a very secure director to make an October and Shoojit always knows how much the writer has contributed to his film,” Juhi pointed out. Meanwhile, Shoojit explains that working with Juhi is an organic process and their recent collaboration was “brought to life by the beauty and fluidity of Juhi’s writing”.

When he was filming Madras Cafe and Juhi was scripting Piku, they began discussing an idea without thinking of turning it into a film. “We’re both from Delhi and try to think of ways of portraying our city differently. In Piku it was humour, in Pink it was dark and in October it was a poetic Delhi,” Shoojit smiles.


DIRECTOR: RAKEYSH OMPRAKASH MEHRA
WRITER: RENSIL D’SILVA

Rakeysh believes that similar ideologies bring a writer and director together. “Rensil (who has also written Rakeysh’s upcoming father-son drama about the present generation) and I go way back to our advertising days. Whenever we discussed movies, we would do it in the global context. That’s how Aks happened. It was a breakthrough film, people called it ahead of its time but essentially it was a story of good and evil co-existing within us,” says the director.

Kamlesh Pandey has been their co-writer through the journey. “Before Rang De Basanti (RDB), Kamlesh ji and I were shooting a documentary in a Gujarat village and there was little to do in the evenings, so we would discuss poetry and Sahir Ludhianvi. Moreover, we had a lot of angst against certain systems and identified with the same movements,” Rakeysh says, recalling that after the duo wrote a couple of drafts of what would eventually become RDB they brought Rensil on-board to write the dialogue and screenplay.

Rensil started re-writing the whole story. He and Rakeysh connected with their ambitious outlook and found a common goal while cowriting the film. “Rensil asked me why we had such laboured, flamboyant dialogues since normal people don’t talk like that. I told him to write it the way he saw fit. It turned out fabulous,” Rakeysh says.

Around the same time, Kamlesh and he were working on a different draft called Young Guns of India on the resistance during the British Raj. “But that film wasn’t going anywhere, and I thought why not turn it into a modern-day story. Then, magic happened. Rensil made all the characters believable,” he adds.

Rakeysh also reveals that he and Rensil believe in the concept of a writing room, where people sit, and bounce ideas off each other. “The director’s vision has to be clear to steer the process efficiently,” he asserts. He makes it a point to work on the final draft himself and spends three hours writing each morning, starting 4am. “That’s how Delhi 6 happened. Kamlesh ji wrote the first draft and Rensil wrote an English draft, adding the twists and turns. Then Prasoon Joshi joined the gang. Every film gives you a lot, but it also leaves you feeling unfulfilled about an expression. So, with my writers — the heroes of my films — we are all trying to complete ourselves,” the filmmaker says.



DIRECTOR: VIPUL SHAH
WRITER: RITESH SHAH

The Shahs have collaborated on franchises like Namastey London and its upcoming instalment, Namaste England, Force and Force 2, as well as Commando and Commando 2. And even though Ritesh has found individual acclaim with Pink, Airlift and Raid, the writer admits that he is addicted to working with Vipul. “He watches films I have worked on outside of his production house on the first day and tells me if he feels that I have sold myself short. He has always been appreciative of my work but also wants me to focus on the numbers,” Ritesh reveals.

Given their long association, Ritesh likens their comfort level to two people in a relationship. “As a writer and a director, you spend so much time together. I’m not even asked if I will work on something, it’s assumed I’ll do it. There is comfort in compatibility. Besides, finding a new person to strike a new equation with, is so much more effort,” Ritesh echoes Reema’s sentiment.

There are creative discussions from time to time. While finalising the script of Namastey London, Vipul told Ritesh “not to be too intellectual” and leave Akshay Kumar’s monologue intact to elicit claps in theatres. Otherwise, Vipul leaves everything to his trusted aide, Ritesh insists. “He rarely changes stuff from the script if he is confident about it. He is not a dictator,” Ritesh says. Vipul remembers a spark in a young Ritesh when he approached him 12 years ago. The filmmaker was basking in the success of Waqt and Aankhein, both written by Aatish Kapadia, and was looking to experiment. “Ritesh understands the importance of strong dialogues and a powerful story. He doesn’t just want to make a film commercial, he keeps the emotions intact,” Vipul asserts.