As artistes, technicians working on plays are rendered jobless due to lockdown, Ali Fazal kicks off initiative to raise funds for them
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 30, 2020)

As soon as the industry shutdown was announced, Bollywood stars joined forces with several cine associations to extend help to daily-wage workers. But little thought has been spared for theatre artistes — with not a single play held in nearly three months, actors and technicians are struggling to stay afloat. Now, Ali Fazal has thrown his might behind the initiative, Theatrewale, that aims to highlight their plight. As part of the endeavour, actor-writer Amitosh Nagpal will build a database of Mumbai-based artistes and technicians, which will then be shared among Bollywood stars and renowned theatre personalities for financial aid.

In the first step, Fazal and Nagpal have developed a video, urging film folk to stand by them during the crisis. Fazal, who has his roots in theatre, argues that most actors in the industry owe their craft to the medium. "Yet, a stepchild-like treatment is meted out to the theatre community. It's important to stand by our fraternity in these difficult times. During the Coronavirus lockdown, the actors are able to be part of virtual shows. But the crew members and technicians have been rendered jobless. We need to make a start somewhere to help them. I hope more actors and filmmakers join the initiative," says the actor.

Nagpal hopes that the video — conceptualised by Maneesh Verma and him — will spread the good word, thus encouraging crowdfunding. "Artistes have stepped up to help others. But how much can they do alone? I hope people also stand by us."

The duo teams up for the first time in a love story being produced by Bhushan Kumar, Nikkhil Advani, John Abraham; film rolls this month
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 6, 2019)

After collaborating on Batla House, Satyameva Jayate and it’s already announced sequel which goes on the floors in February, Bhushan Kumar, Nikkhil Advani and John Abraham are gearing up for yet another collaboration. Mirror has learnt that the trio will produce a yet-untitled family dramedy headlined by Arjun Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh.

Kaashvie Nair, who has earlier assisted Nikkhil on his sports-drama Patiala House and the 2013 action-thriller D-Day and co-directed the TV series POW Bandi Yuddh Ke, will be making her feature film debut as a director with this one. She is the daughter of Shashilal K Nair, who has directed films like the 1992 crime-drama Angaar which bagged him the National Film Award for Best Special Effects, and the 2001 action-crime film One 2 Ka 4, featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla. Kaashvie and her team have completed the recee and the film is in the final stages of prep.

“It is a coming-of-age, cross-border love story, beautifully written by Anuja Chauhan, Amitosh Nagpal and Kaashvie. It will be shot extensively in Punjab and Los Angeles and will feature Arjun and Rakul in never-seen-before avatars. We will be locking the title and the release date soon,” informs Nikkhil, who is gearing up for the release of his next production, the Milap Zaveri-directed Marjaavaan, which also features Rakul, alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria.

Bhushan adds that the film is scheduled to go on the floors this month. “It sums up our everyday experiences and relationships with our families. The audiences will definitely enjoy it,” the filmmaker promises.

Arjun informs that when the debutante filmmaker and the writers gave him a narration, he knew instantly that it was a special script. “I have grown up in a joint family so I understood that it’s the biggest pillar of love, strength and support. That’s the essence of our film, which has its heart in the right place. I’m having a blast even during the prep,” the 34-year-old actor asserts, adding that he is excited to be working with Rakul for the first time after collaborating with her during workshops. “She is a beautiful, instinctive and generous co-star,” he signs off.

The parallel universes of writing and acting have rarely intersected in Bollywood. But now, a new breed of Hindi hyphenates — actors who write and writers who act, are coming into their own
Nishit Tiwari (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 23, 2018)

Talking to Hussain Dalal is like watching a stand-up routine. Every train of thought is punctuated with pauses and culminates in a punchline which, more often than not, lands where it is intended to. It wouldn’t surprise anyone who has been at the movies regularly for the last five years. Since Ayan Mukerji’s 2013 directorial, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (YJHD), for which he wrote the dialogue, Hussain has worked in 25 films, some as an actor and others as a dialogue writer.

The 29-year-old Mazgaon boy — he describes himself and his co-writer brother Abbas as boys from streets nobody knows the names of — is an eminent member of Bollywood’s actor-writer community. While the two parallel universes have intersected more consistently through generations in Hollywood, its Bollywood journey has been woefully sporadic. The few people who come to mind are Guru Dutt, Kader Khan, Neena Gupta, Saurabh Shukla and Neeraj Vora.

However, the advent of storytelling platforms, predominantly streaming websites, and, as veteran actor-writer Saurabh Shukla puts it, the human tendency to seek newness, have given an opportunity to the Hindi hyphenates to come into their own.

Like most of his contemporaries, Hussain comes from a theatre background but he wears the duality of his aesthetic on his sleeve. “My default setting as a writer is commercial, while as an actor, my sensibilities match with art-house cinema,” he says. And the statement checks out, if you look at his work. After YJHD, he did Abhishek Varman’s directorial debut, 2 States (2014), and has reunited with Ayan on his third film, the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt-starrer Brahmastra. Then there’s Varman’s Kalank, and Baahubali star Prabhas’s upcoming bilingual Saaho, for which he has co-written dialogues with his brother, among his upcoming projects. As an actor, he will be seen with Rajkummar Rao and Kangana Ranaut in Prakash Kovelamudi’s Mental Hai Kya, “a more story-oriented, fun film.”

“People ask me for the secret of my success but I am just trying not to be poor,” he confides, almost annoyed with the tone of the queries. “I am extremely scared of self-importance, as I have seen many talented people drown in that ocean,” he reasons. Elitism is another trigger word for him, but point out that YJHD was elitist too, and pat comes the reply, “But it was consumed by the non elite. The idea is to create content that doesn’t require 10 years of education and a degree to understand.”

Unlike Hussain, Ashrut Jain’s tryst with writing was set off by the stifling stillness of small town life in Jabalpur. “I was a good orator and used to write my own speeches. You won’t believe it, but even before Gadar came out and its dialogue, ‘Doodh maangoge toh kheer denge, Kashmir maangoge toh cheer denge,’ became famous, I had used it in an Independence Day speech,” he claims, and thus establishes early on that his patriotism fuels all his creative endeavours.

The actor in him took longer to surface. “That’s the difference exposure makes when you are born in a small town and not between Borivali and Bandra,” he notes. Ashrut discovered theatre in college and subsequently, his true calling. Afterwards, he took up a job in the casting department of Yash Raj Films. Brief turns in films like Goliyon Ki Raas Leela Ram-Leela and M S Dhoni - The Untold Story and a lead part in the 2016 dramedy, Sunshine Music Tours and Travels, followed in quick succession. But his most notable turns have come with Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk this July and Shree Narayan Singh’s Friday release, Batti Gul Meter Chalu.

He is now gearing up to make his first film as a writer, A Road Trip To Pakistan, in which he also plays the protagonist. “My first love is acting. I want the next generation to talk about me the way we talk about Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Ranbir Kapoor,” he asserts with wide-eyed optimism. What happens to writing, then? “I still write and have two scripts ready. Besides, I approach writing as either a creative outlet or a tool to become a better actor,” he says.

Amitosh Nagpal, a 33-year-old National School of Drama alumnus from Hisar, Haryana, tells people that he is ‘an actor who writes, not a writer who acts.’ “But I am writing more than I am acting,” he laughs.

After making a name for himself in Delhi theatre circles as an actor, he came to Mumbai in 2006 to do films. Instead, he ended up making ad jingles and wrote, directed and acted in plays before he landed a break as lyricist in Dibakar Banerjee’s National Award-winning dark comedy, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye (2008). He’d delivered two of the year’s biggest earworms, Superchor and Jugni, with the former even earning him a National Award nomination. “The songs were written in an hour or two,” he recalls, and is low-key dismissive of praise for producing something in a very short span of time. “It’s amusing when people give gyaan and cite rulebooks instead of just getting down to work,” he shrugs.

Brief roles in Dabangg, Aarakshan and Besharam, among others, haven’t done enough to satisfy the actor in him and Amitosh, whose most well-known work now is as an actor and translator of a widely-travelled and well regarded play called Piya Behrupiya, is ready to take matters into his own hands. “I have written the dialogue for Amole Gupte’s Saina Nehwal biopic and a film called Aadhar for Drishyam Films. Now, I have four scripts ready and I will play the lead in all of them,” he states.

Zeishan Quadri (left) who shot to fame as the actor-writer of Gangs Of Wasseypur, had come to Mumbai to become an actor. But Anurag Kashyap pointed out that he had all the makings of a good writer. Soon enough, an eight-page concept note turned into a 200-page ‘upanyas’ (novel), and subsequently led to the two films, in which Zeishan, who is now 35, played the character of Definite with quiet intensity.

“Going by the praise I received for my character, I figured I’d be inundated with acting offers. But the industry accepted me more as a writer,” he says, the reason being that “there are more actors in Maximum City than writers.” Quadri is now foraying into the romcom genre. “My stories usually start with a pistol but in this one, it will start with a rose,” he says. The film in question is one of the most anticipated films of next year, but Zeishan is tight-lipped about the details. On the acting front, he says that he has accepted a role in a new film to be directed by Ashwini Chaudhary, whose Dhoop he had loved.

At 47, Manu Rishi Chadha is of a different vintage, but his sensibilities are as contemporary as they come. Born and brought up in Chandni Chowk, he was raised by a Punjabi mother who hailed from Bihar and subscribed to the Hindi magazine, Dharma Yug, which was then edited by renowned author Dharamvir Bharti. “My subconscious mind was crammed with anecdotes, stories and the way they were narrated. My old Delhi upbringing taught me a lot without taking a fee,” he philosophises.

“When I arrived in Mumbai, I didn’t get dialogues to speak, I got them to write. It was fun because an actor lives a character but when I am writing dialogue, it is for an entire set of them,” Incidentally, Manurishi wrote the dialogue for Oye Lucky... and played Abhay Deol’s friend in the film....

More recently he wrote Nanu Ki Jaanu, and is making sure to get as much writing in as he can. “I act when I can, comfortably, as writing is priority. I feel a responsibility towards it. Besides, professional writing is all about meeting the deadline. I probably don’t get acting offers because I don’t have a good rapport with casting directors,” he chuckles, adding that in Mumbai, his friends Piyush Mishra and Deepak Dobriyal encouraged him to write.

Why is this tribe finding a footing in the Hindi film industry now? Saurabh Shukla, who featured in and served as a screenwriter on Satya (1999), Ram Gopal Varma’s most seminal work in the gangster-drama genre, among others, quotes French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Every generation gets sad, happy, gets into fights and falls in love. The difference is, a young couple probably fights over the internet now. That said, our quest for newness has brought us to the realm of realism.”

Second round of prep for Saina biopic to focus on building stamina and match choreography
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 25, 2018)

Dialogue writer Amitosh Nagpal (of Hindi Medium and Gulaab Gang fame) had shared a few days ago, “Saina’s script is locked and a new journey begins.” Confirming the development, director Amole Gupte, who has been working on the Bhushan Kumar-produced biopic on badminton ace Saina Nehwal, reveals that the pre-production work on the project is in full swing. Next up, the filmmaker will start conducting workshops with his leading lady, Shraddha Kapoor, closer to the film’s first schedule in September.

“From here on, it will be a road map for Shraddha’s badminton training, part one of which is already over in terms of her understanding of Saina’s style on the court, her grip on the racket and the ground. Saina’s style is very different from her contemporaries and we have a research team that has closely watched every match played by her. Also, since Saina is from Hisar and her family continues to use the Haryanvi dialect in conversations with each other, we got Amitosh on board who was born in Haryana and has written the dialogue wherever the Haryanvi twang was required. Amitosh will guide Shraddha with the dialogue delivery too,” informs Amole, who has been working on the film since August 2015.

Shraddha, whose first round of prep for the biopic had begun in June last year and lasted a few months before she got busy with other projects, including the Prabhas-starrer Saaho, will resume work with a focus on strengthening stamina on the court and match choreography. “From here onwards, it will go to the level of sustainability and work on the muscles to avoid injuries as we progress. Fortunately, Shraddha’s physical training for Saaho has come in handy for us,” Amole says.