Rajkumar Hirani is a picture of calmness against the air of excitement at a recent screenwriters&rsquo; lab held in the city. At the event conducted by Mumbai Mantra and Sundance Institute, the P.K. director is cautious enough to stick to script-related questions. In the ensuing t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te, the celebrated filmmaker explains which stories inspire him and what needs to change in Hindi&nbsp;cinema.
<img title="Rajkumar Hirani" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/mar/rajkumar-hirani.jpg" alt="Rajkumar Hirani" /> Rajkumar Hirani. PIC/PRASHANT WAYDANDE
What do you think about the quality of scriptwriting in our country? Anybody can tell you that scripts are the foundation of filmmaking; so if a script is good, better films can be made. In our country, we function in a slightly different manner, though. Different people make films for different reasons. Money is available &mdash; let&rsquo;s make a film. An actor&rsquo;s dates are available &mdash; let&rsquo;s make a film. Very few say, &lsquo;Here&rsquo;s a great script, let&rsquo;s make a film&rsquo;. As a result, scriptwriting usually gets neglected. However, the situation is getting better if you compare today&rsquo;s films to the ones we had, say 20 years ago. As of now, there&rsquo;s variety in films. You have a Highway and a Queen clicking with the audiences. It&rsquo;s undoubtedly a promising change.
How can a screenwriters&rsquo; lab contribute in such a scenario? It contributes greatly. It&rsquo;s a brilliant and a much-needed effort. We should have started such an exercise 15 years ago, but better later than never. Finally, we seem to be providing attention to those who actually make a film happen: the scriptwriters. Having said that, the whole effort is not going to move toward fruition immediately. Efforts take time to result in concrete change. Let&rsquo;s say, eight-10 years later, we&rsquo;ll have a new crop of gifted writers.
Scriptwriting being a subjective process, how can a mentor help talent grow? Scriptwriting is indeed a subjective process. But instead of you writing alone in a room &mdash; trying to figure out your way into the industry &mdash; why not let experienced folks remove the roadblocks for you? When you interact with people, or say, a mentor, he&rsquo;ll trigger your thought process in ways you might not have thought of before. Having someone to tell you, &ldquo;What if you take this route or that route&rdquo; helps a lot &mdash; with no hard and fast rule you take those routes. I&rsquo;ve been through that phase myself so I know. During my younger days, I remember narrating my stories to others so that I could get a clue into characters or situations I somehow missed.
<img title="Rajkumar Hirani with Sanjay Dutt (centre) and Aamir Khan (right) on the sets of P.K." src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/mar/peekay.jpg" alt="Rajkumar Hirani with Sanjay Dutt (centre) and Aamir Khan (right) on the sets of P.K." /> Rajkumar Hirani with Sanjay Dutt (centre) and Aamir Khan (right) on the sets of P.K.
Does your role as a mentor make you nervous? I&rsquo;m not really mentoring anyone in this lab. Anjum (Rajabali), who has written scripts such as Raajneeti and Pukar, is working closely with the young talents. I&rsquo;m just adding my bit from the outside. I&rsquo;ve been asked to read some scripts and comment on them &mdash; what I feel about them and things like that. It&rsquo;s interesting to come across writers who have something new to offer.
And how would you deal with a bad script? (Pauses) Bad scripts are easy to identify, just like a book. If it engages you, it&rsquo;s a good enough book. The same is true about a good script. However, the trouble is not in identifying a bad script, it&rsquo;s in pointing out a good script. And once you do that, what next? That&rsquo;s the tricky part &mdash; to stick to a good idea and create a film out of it, that&rsquo;s an altogether different story.
What are the advantages of being a director who writes his own scripts? It&rsquo;s not a matter of advantage or disadvantage. It&rsquo;s more about a vision for a particular film. When you write your own films, you know the subject more deeply though you can&rsquo;t possibly write all the nuances in a script. Most of it is left to imagination. So a scriptwriter-cum-filmmaker might be able to translate those nuances into cinematic realisations more effectively.
What drives you as a filmmaker... what compels you to make a movie? If there&rsquo;s an issue or a message that I believe needs to be delivered across through a film, then I take it upon myself to make it. Or else, what&rsquo;s the point? Money has never really been a driving force for me.
How do you define success in commercial terms then? I think success can&rsquo;t be defined by ticket sales after the first weekend. To me, it can be defined by achieving what a filmmaker originally set out to make. There are films crossing R100 crore today but how many of them will you be talking about five years down the line? We don&rsquo;t respect Mughal-e-Azam or Pyaasa or Sholay or Lagaan for the money they made. You don&rsquo;t go and watch a Padosan or a Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi for the business it did. We remember them for the way they touched us. Films click at the box-office not always on its merit. A successful film is the one that you want to see even after five years.
Who have been cinematic influences over the years? Different masters have influenced me. I was a huge Hrishikesh Mukherjee fan. Later on, I was touched by the films made by Gulzarsaab, Manmohan Desai and Ramesh Sippy. So it&rsquo;s never been one person. From the West, I found Milos Forman&rsquo;s body of work inspiring. Human interest stories have always moved me and they still do.

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani on what makes a film click and why scriptwriting needs to be given importance in our country&nbsp;

Success can't be defined by ticket sales: Rajkumar Hirani

'Skirt'ing the issue

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani on what makes a film click and why scriptwriting needs to be given importance in our country&nbsp;

Success can't be defined by ticket sales: Rajkumar Hirani

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Success can't be defined by ticket sales: Rajkumar Hirani

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